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!)
I’m back from New York! More to come on my phenomenal trip, but for now, I’ll just say: four days, five Broadway shows, three museums and a library. I didn’t take one taxi, nor one subway, but I did walk an average of eleven miles a day.
It was the perfect New York trip!
Here I am in the Morgan Library. More to come on this amazing space.
Let Me Help You Discover Books You Might Not Otherwise Read!
Out Today: (I’ve starred the ones I’ve read)
*Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
Margo Miller, 20 year-old with a baby, needs fast cash and starts an OnlyFans page, adopting some of her estranged father’s advice from the world of wrestling. A humorous coming of age novel about internet fame and storytelling.
Key words: coming of age, wrestling, internet fame, humor
Tehrangeles by Porochista Khakpoour
Little Women meets Crazy Rich Asians in this satire about Iranian-American multimillionaires Ali and Homa Milani and their daughters who are about to land their own reality TV show.
Key words: family saga, tragicomedy, satire, Los Angeles
I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself by Glynnis MacNicol
After spending spending sixteen months alone in her New York apartment in 2020, grappling with relentless isolation, Glynnis MacNicol, 46, takes her friend up on an opportunity to sublet her apartment in Paris where Glynnis comes into her own.
Key words: self-discovery, Paris, radical enjoyment
What Fire Brings by Rachel Howzell Hall
I recommended Hall’s What Never Happened on the podcast last year. Her new suspense novel takes place in Topanga Canyon where Bailey meadows interns for author Jack Beckham. But she’s really there to investigate a man who went missing on Beckham’s property.
Key words: thriller, suspense, California
Ask Me Again by Clare Sestanovich
Along the lines of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, at sixteen, Eva meets Jamie by chance, both living in New York. These characters weave in and out of each other’s lives
Key words: friendship, identity, self-discovery
Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart
The world's most lethal assassin gives up the violent life with the help of a twelve-step group for reformed killers, only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. For fans of Killing Eve and novels by Grady Hendrix.
Key words: adventure, thriller, suspense
One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon
Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world's troubles.
Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders.
Key words: gothic thriller, psychological
A perceptive and personal reflection on the first half-century of hip-hop written by one of hip-hop’s legends.
Key words: hip-hop, history, music, rap,
Consent: a memoir by Jill Clement
At the young age of seventeen Jill Clement met and married a forty-seven year-old man. This memoir revisits her relationship and asks whether we can judge past behavior by today’s moral codes. From the author of Half A Life.
Key words: memoir, #metoo, memory, art, relationships
*The Dunning-Kruger Effect by Andres Stoopendaal
I found it so interesting that this novel is inspired by Stephen King’s On Writing, as that is a must-read for writers. In Stoopendaal’s novel, the unnamed narrator is trying to finish his own novel while contemplating / juggling / wrestling with his own life. This is a funny, cerebral look at creativity and one writer’s unintentional self-deconstruction.
Key words: literary, satire, work in translation
Our in paperback:
Goodbye Earl by Leesa Cross-Smith
Taking inspiration from the infamous, empowering song, Goodbye Earl follows four best friends through two unforgettable summers, fifteen years apart.
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie
A moving novel about the unbreakable power of female friendship follows two estranged women in Ghana who reconnect in a crisis.
*The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec
The lives of two women--one desperate only to save her missing sister, the other a witch destined to become queen of Norway--intertwine in this spellbinding, powerful Viking Age historical fantasy novel.
Online Writing, Reading and Art Events This Week (three things I love!)
Reading:
Thursday, June 13th at 4 pm PT - Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, And Just One Page Before Lights Out (Thomas Crane Public Library)
Writing:
Saturday, June 15th at 11 am PT - Literary Agent and the Querying Process (Orange County Library System)
Art:
Thursday, June 13th 4pm PT
from Art Hang Party will be drawing snails!
Signing off with a little fifteen minute early morning painting in Central Park where the light was just magical.
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.)
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Adding “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” and “I’m mostly here to enjoy myself” to my TBL!
Your NY trip sounds exhaustingly fun! See you Thursday! 🐌🤗💖✨