Books Are My People Weekly Newsletter
out today, paperback releases and more!
Let Me Help You Discover Books You Might Not Otherwise Read! You can learn more about me by visiting my introductory post here.
Dear Reader,
It’s hard to ignore the anxiety I’m feeling today as we cast our vote for what we want our future to look like in America. I’m for a country that celebrates pluralism and works to protect everyone’s rights, so that’s who and what I’m voting for on a micro and macro level. Stay safe out there, be good to one another and, please, if you are able, exercise your right to vote today! It is a privilege to be able to do so.
And I’ll be wearing my yellow flower today, thanks to this post by the amazing
Books Are My People paying subscribers exercised their right to vote and selected our February pick! Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli. You can join us by upgrading your subscription. (154 pages, published in 2014.)
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray is our Book-to-Film selection for November here on Substack We’ll be reading the book, watching the Lanthimos film or both (you choose) and then having a discussion at the end of November. Come join us by upgrading your subscription.
You can pop in for a month and check it out or join for the year at a discount. Refer three friends who sign up and get a month free!
I am giving away one paperback copy of THE NEW NATURALS by Gabriel Bump. I read this when it was first published and loved it. In it, Rio, a young Black woman deals with the loss of her infant. She craves safety and security and with the help of her husband, Gibraltar, she constructs a literal underground society that aims to be an inclusive utopia. But is the perfect society possible? The book explores issues of race, class and the human condition.
To Enter: Simply make sure you’re following me on Instagram and leave a comment and subscribe to this newsletter. This giveaway will close on Wednesday, November 27th and I will contact the winner on November 29th. Open to U.S. mailing addresses only.
Latest Podcast:
here on my Books Are My People podcast.
Small recently published Write About Now: Successful Authors on Overcoming Obstacles, Finding Inspiration and the Birth of Their Careers.
The best way you can support this newsletter 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!)
BOOK COVER CHAT AND DRAW: Let’s paint / draw book covers and have a casual chat about the books we’re reading! (I’ve hosted two of these in the past and people seem to like them! Sign up here. (You must sign up to attend.) All attendees will receive a document with all of the books we talk about. No art experience required, as evidenced by my invented book cover for Katya Apekina’s Mother Doll. Please share with book and art-loving friends!
WHEN: Wednesday, November 13th at 11:30 am PT
Books Out Today: The list of books being released today is very short! I think publishers knew we’d all be focusing on the election today, here in the States.
A Very Bad Thing by J. T. Ellison
Love a thriller? Celebrated novelist Columbia Jones is at the top of her game. Fans around the world adore her. But on the final night of her latest book tour, one face in the crowd makes the author collapse. And by the next morning, she's lying dead in a pool of blood. Columbia's death shocks the world and leaves Darian, her daughter and publicist, reeling. The police have nothing to go on--at first. But then details emerge, pointing to the author's illicit past. Turns out many people had motive to kill Columbia.
*Bel Canto (annotated edition) by Ann Patchett
Want To Revisit A Classic? I remember reading and loving this novel when I read it in my early 20’s for book club when I lived in the Hollywood Hills. (I’m still close with those book club friends! In fact, one of them is here in my Substack book club!) And I do love an anontated reissue that allows the reader to see why the author made certain choices in the novel.
First published in 2001 and set in an unnamed South American country, at the home of the vice president, it is the story of a lavish birthday party honoring Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has enthralled the international guests with a mesmerizing performance. The evening is perfect--until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion--and cannot be stopped.
Sylvia Plath’s Tomato Soup Cake: A Compendium of Classic Authors’ Favorite Recipes by Nina Stibbe
Feeling Hungry? Agatha Christie's hot bean salad.Jack Kerouac's green pea soup. Joan Didion's Mexican chicken. Allen Ginsberg's cold summer borscht. Daphne du Maurier's sloe gin. Christopher Isherwood's brownies. George Orwell's plum cake. Have you ever wondered what your favourite classic authors cooked - whether as an intimate snack for one or as their showstopping dinner party special? Here's your chance to wine and dine with the world's most famous writers in a gorgeous new collection of their most-loved recipes, curated from their archives, letters and diaries. Whet your appetite: there are culinary treats and eccentricities in store ...
The Name Of This Band Is R.E.M.: A Biography by Peter Ames Carlin
Love music? Look at Michael Stipe with hair!!
In the spring of 1980, an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first performance at a college party in Athens, Georgia. Within a few short years, they had taken over the world - with smash records like Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and Green. Raw, outrageous, and expressive, R.E.M.'s distinctive musical flair was unmatched, and a string of mega-successes solidified them as generational spokesmen. In the tumultuous transition between the wide-open 80s and the anxiety of the early 90s, R.E.M. challenged the corporate and social order, chasing a vision and cultivating a magnetic, transgressive sound.
Paperback Releases:
*The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
I loved this book SO much! A meditation on our contemporary era, as a solitary female narrator asks what it means to be alive at this complex moment in history and considers how our present reality affects the way a person looks back on her past.
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
I’m just leaving you with the tagline, because it’s so good. THERE'S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD.
*The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.
I fight anxiety by painting and working out. So yesterday, I painted this plate of fruit (it’s a copy of a work of art by Cezanne, because you can learn so much about brushstrokes and color mixing and tone through imitation) and then, I went for a run.
UPDATED: December - I will be pausing Substack for the month of December in order to recharge. What does this mean for you? If you’re a paying subscriber, you won’t be charged for December. And there will be no paying subscriber activities. For free subscribers, this means no newsletters for the month of December. I WILL still be publishing my book recommendation podcast, Books Are My People during December. And business as usual will resume in January.I hope you all have a wonderfully bookish week! What are you looking forward to reading on or off this list? Share below.
Books Are My People: A Podcast Companion Newsletter
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