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.
I’ll be going LIVE on Instagram on Thursday, March 7th at 9 am PT with Amy from The Perks of Being a Book Lover Podcast. Come say hi and see what books we loved in February!
Episode #120 of Books Are My People is here with Roxana Robinson, author of Leaving.
If you love books, March is where it’s at. There are SO many new releases this month. As I’ve previously mentioned, publishers are frontloading release dates so they occur before all of the upcoming election noise.
PLEASE NOTE: I’m moving the writing / reading / arting events to the bottom of the newsletter, in case you’re just here for the books.
For Subscribers:
Thank you to those of you who were able to join in yesterday’s zoom meetup for Land of Milk and Honey! I will be sending out the replay soon. We will also be voting on May’s Read With Me book soon.
Join us in reading and / or watching The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee and / or The Expats on Prime Video. We will have a zoom meet up to discuss towards the end of the month.
Feel free to upgrade to paying just for the month and check it out!
Also, Thursday posts will return this week! Stay tuned.
Out Today:
(I’ve starred the ones I’ve read)
*The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
A group of translators gather to work on a famous writer’s magnum opus in Poland. Then, the author disappears.
key words: translators, humor, literary
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
A first-generation Ivy League student uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death.
key words: artists, students, campus novel
The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez
A powerful novel about the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived, loved, and labored there.
key words: Panama Canal, historical fiction, activism
Here After: A Memoir by Amy Lin
Amy Lin never expected to find a love like the one she shares with her husband, Kurtis, a gifted young architect who pulls her toward joy, adventure, and greater self-acceptance. On a sweltering August morning, only a few months shy of the newlyweds' move to Vancouver, thirty-two-year-old Kurtis heads out to run a half-marathon with Amy's family. It's the last time she sees her husband alive.
key words: mourning, memory, identity
Parasol Against the Axe Helen Oyeyemi
A novel about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague. I loved Oyeyemi’s Gingerbread.
key words: absurdist, two friends, bachelor party, Prague
Ellipses by Vanessa Lawrence
Set in the glossy world of New York City media, this sharp and witty debut novel follows a young woman caught in a toxic mentorship with an older, powerful executive as she grapples with career, belonging, and the complexity of modern relationships in the digital age.
key words: cultural heritage, LGBTQIA+, New York, literary
*Royal Audience: 70 Years, 13 Presidents - One Queen’s Special Relationship With America by David Charter
Royal Audience peels back the curtain on the "special relationship" between the U.S. and the U.K. as embodied by the Queen herself--charting Elizabeth II's distinctive brand of one-to-one diplomacy through the eyes of those who experienced it firsthand.
key words: history, royalty, queen, U.S. Presidents, anecdotes
Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon
An electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, about addiction and sex, family and independence, and who holds the power in a modern underworld.
key words: camp counselor, Persephone and Demeter, island, billionaire, nanny
The Hunter by Tana French
It's a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.
key words: sequel, Irish village, crime fiction, revenge
Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman
A humane and darkly comic workplace caper that shines a light on the odds low-wage workers are up against in today's economy. Help Wanted is a funny, moving tale of ordinary people trying to make a living.
key words: workplace comedy, competition, manager
Never Been Better by Leanne Toshiko Simpson
A hilariously offbeat and tender comedy about one bipolar woman's messy search for love at a seaside wedding where no one can stay afloat.
key words: humor, neurodiversity
American Spirits by Russell Banks
From one of America's most celebrated storytellers come three dark, interlocking tales about the residents of a rural New York town, and the shocking headlines that become their local mythologies.
key words: posthumous, New York, conncected stories
The Hearing Test by Eliza Barry Callahan
A young woman reorients her relationship to the world in the wake of sudden deafness in this debut novel.
key words: literary, sudden deafness, New York City
Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capo Crucet
Scarface meets Moby Dick in this groundbreaking, darkly comic novel about a young man's attempt to capitalize on his mother's murky legacy--a story steeped in Miami's marvelous and sinister magic.
key words: humor, literary
Bury The Lead by Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti
A big-city journalist joins the staff of a small-town paper in cottage country and finds a community full of secrets ... and murder.
key words: mystery, detective, theater
My Heavenly Favorite by Lucas Rijneveld
This tells the story of a veterinarian who visits a farm in the Dutch countryside where he becomes enraptured by his "Favorite"--the farmer's daughter. She hovers on the precipice of adolescence, and longs to have a boy's body. The veterinarian seems to be a tantalizing possible path out from the constrictions of her conservative rural life.
key words: veterinarian, Netherlands, literary, psychological
Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk
Across two different time periods, two women confront fear, loneliness, mortality, and a haunting yearning that will not let them rest. A breakout, genre-blurring novel from one of the most exciting new voices of Latin America's feminist Gothic.
key words: literary, supernatural, LGBTQIA+, Argentina
Baby X by Kira Peikoff
When any biological matter can be used to create life, stolen celebrity DNA sells to the highest bidder-or the craziest stalker-in this propulsive thriller.
key words: sci-fy, thriller, DNA, black market
Bye, Bye Baby by Carola Lovering
On a brisk fall night in a New York apartment, 35-year-old Billie West hears terrified screams. It's her lifelong best friend Cassie Barnwell, one floor above, and she's just realized her infant daughter has gone missing. Billie is shaken as she looks down into her own arms to see the baby, remembering--with a jolt of fear--that she is responsible for the kidnapping that has instantly shattered Cassie's world.
key words: former best friends, infant kidnapping, alternating POV’s, psychological
Paperback Releases:
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself.
Have you listened to Episode #120 of Books Are My People? If not, listen here . Roxanna is the author of Leaving. While we’re on the subject of my podcast, can you do me a favor? If you are a listener, can you please rate my podcast wherever you listen? It helps other people discover it. And feel free to share it with book-loving friends, coworkers, mail carriers…. you get the idea.
Happening this week:
Online Writing, Reading and Art Events This Week (three things I love!)
Reading Events:
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at 3:00 PM — B&N Midday Mystery Virtually Presents: Tana French's THE HUNTER!
Writing Events:
Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 6:30 PM Writing Characters Outside Your Lived Experience with AR Bernier and PM Raymond
Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 2:00 PM 12 Secrets to Injecting Humor Into Your Stories
Art Events:
I’ve already gotten a headstart. Here’s my wonky donkey!
Thursday, March 7th at 4:00 PM PT
This week’s theme is “Build A Cafe.”
🦉 Awkward Animal Portraits - March 8 at 9 am CST / 3 pm GMT
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 for this great list--I've put a couple in my cart! I was on the Perks podcast a few months ago! xo
I’m looking forward to reading Anita de Monte Laughs Last. The NY Times just wrote a piece that it is uncannily similar to the story of Cuban performance artist Ana Mendieta.