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.
Do you ever have one of those weeks where you’re completely exhausted for no good reason? I’m all better from the flu. I shouldn’t be this tired, and yet, everything feels so heavy and no amount of coffee or exercise can help me shake it. Hoping it lifts soon because I have a lot to get done in my world!
I went live with Annie from the book club SoThis. We each recommend two books written by British authors. Watch it here.
Episode #119 of Books Are My People is out! I felt so lucky to interview my local, independent bookstore owner, John Evans from Diesel Bookstore. Listen here.
My friend and art instructor
made this video about a book she received (from me) and some amazing art supplies she received (not from me.) It was such a treat to see!
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!
Online Writing, Reading and Art Events This Week (three things I love!)
Wednesday, February 14th, 3 PM pt: Plot Your Memoir Like A Novel (this event is free!)
Thursday, February 15th at 4 PM pt Art Hang Party on Youtube. Join me! She’s painting vintage Valentine’s Day Cards. It’s free!
Friday, February 16th: Fill Your Pages from Edge to Edge with Derwent taught by
. This free class is sponsored by Michael’s. Click here to learn more and sign up.Saturday, February 17th 3 PM PT Sit and Scribble Virtual Writing Session (free event) Click here for more info and to sign up.
What’s ComingUp For Paying Subscribers:
February: We’re in the middle of our Read With Me Book, Land of Milk and Honey. I will send out a note on Monday about voting for the best time to meet at the end of the month to wrap up zoom. Yes, there will be a book giveaway during the zoom!
March: We’ll be reading The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee and watching The Expats series on Prime and talking about them on a zoom at the end of March. Read the book. Watch the show. Do both. Do neither!
We will also be voting in March on what book we will be reading in May for Read With Me.
April: RYOB (read your own book) and we’ll talk about it over zoom at the end of the month.
Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. It’s a LONG list today! Because it’s an election year, publishers are frontloading the first part of the year with book releases.
Out Today:
Leaving by Roxana Robinson
Sarah and Warren's college love story ended in a single moment. Decades later, when a chance meeting brings them together, a passion ignites--threatening the foundations of the lives they've built apart.
key words: college sweethearts, desire, loyalty, consequences
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are.
key words: supernatural, coming of age, power struggle
Plastic by Scott Guild
A surreal, hilarious, and sneakily profound debut novel that casts our current climate of gun violence and environmental destruction in a surprising new mold.
key words: unique, government monitoring, work, family, dystopian fantasy, American society.
Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
These reissues from Puffin Bloom are not only gorgeous, but made for young adult readers. And the covers are so beautiful!
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
Manchuria, 1908. In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men.
key words: ancient folktales, mythology, literary, foxes
Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh
Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, a memoir, and an essay in history, drawing on decades of archival research. In it, Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India, and China, as well as the world at large.
key words: opium, colonialism, globalism, capitalism, memoir
Coctails With George and Martha by Philip Gefter
An award-winning writer reveals the behind-the-scenes story of the provocative play, the groundbreaking film it became, and how two iconic stars changed the image of marriage forever.
key words: film, film criticism, history, theater, American marriage
I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall
When Khaki received an invitation from her former best friend, Fiona, she is prompted to craft the perfect mixtape - revisiting memories of formative shows, failed romances, and the ups and downs of desire and denial--while weighing the risks and rewards of saying yes to Fiona again.
key words: music, friendship, memories, bipoc
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
I’m not a huge fantasy-genre reader, but I’ve heard such great things about this novel. Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers--a lonely yet charming old man--dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading. But this is no ordinary book...It is the Book of Doors.
key words: Fantasy, literary, romance, time travel, books
No One Dies Yet by Kobby Ben Ben
It is 2019, The Year of Return. Ghana is inviting Black diasporans to return and get to know the land of their enslaved ancestors.
key words: Ghana, LGBTQIA, friendship, identity
Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks
How much of their lineage is one family willing to unearth in order to participate in the nation's first federal reparations program? Every American waits with bated breath to see whether or not the country's first female president will pass the Forgiveness Act. The bill would allow Black families to claim up to $175,000 if they can prove they are the descendants of slaves, and for ambitious single mother Willie Revel the bill could be a long-awaited form of redemption.
key words: multilayered narrative, reparations, imagined history, bipoc
I Heard Her Call My Name by Lucy Sante
An iconic writer's lapidary memoir of a life spent pursuing a dream of artistic truth while evading the truth of her own gender identity, until, finally, she turned to face who she really was.
key words: memoir, art, gender, identity
The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang
A thrilling and unforgettable narrative about the intertwined lives of two wronged women, spanning from the chaos of the San Francisco earthquake to the glittering palaces of Versailles.
key words: historical, mastery, San Francisco earthquake, Versailles
Greasepaint by Hannah Levene
Set against a backdrop of 1950s New York, this experimental novel follows an ensemble cast of all-singing, all-dancing butch dykes and Yiddish anarchists through eternal Friday nights, around the table, and at the bar.
key words: LGBTQIA, Jewish, New York
The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
Yellowjackets meets The Cloisters in this beguiling coming-of-age story about class, reinvention, and destiny, set against the backdrop of two mysterious deaths.
key words: thriller, suspense, coming of age
Out in Paperback:
*My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin
An incisive, deeply resonant debut novel about a nonconsensual sexual encounter that propels one woman's final semester at an elite New England college into controversy and chaos--and into an ill-advised affair with a married professor.
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.)
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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 for listing the online workshops! I signed up for the one with @samantha dion baker. And i'm excited for Kelly Link's new book!
Books covers are so engaging. I know I’m not supposed to judge, but the covers invite me to read them all. I’m behind on milk and honey- I’ll read it as soon as I’m done catching up with Substack.