Books Are My People Weekly Newsletter
out today, paperback releases and more!
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Dear Reader,
So much is happening! I got a taste of donning fall sweaters last week in Los Angeles, but now it’s back to 86 degrees out! My sweaters are like, “What gives?” I just want to be cozy by a fireplace with a cup of tea reading a book!
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray is our Book-to-Film selection for November here on Substack I just flipped through it and there are illustrations (!) I’m assuming Yorgos Lanthimos used to craft the film’s distinct look. 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!
PAYING SUBSCRIBERS: The polls are open, PLEASE VOTE HERE for our February Read With Me Book!
I have a little something special to add to the newsletter today! A brief interview with Aliah Wright, author of the recently published Now You Owe Me from
.1. What is the elevator pitch for Now You Owe Me?
They spent years abducting young women until, one night, they snatched the wrong one …
Twins Ben and Corinthia do everything together, including kidnapping and killing women, but for different reasons that make sense only to them. Racked with guilt and the fear of being caught, they vow to take just one more woman. But when they kidnap Fiona Kessler, they don’t realize they’ll have to contend with her roommate, Amanda Taylor, who is hell bent on finding her best friend. When she does, however, the outcome is disastrous for nearly everyone.
2. What are some themes the novel explores?
This book is about so much. Love, hurt, pain, regret, guilt, trauma, defiance and control. It’s about friendship and what that means to people and what they’re willing to sacrifice for it. It’s also about family and how family defines who we become and weighty issues surrounding American culture.
3. What are some read-alikes to your novel?
To be honest, before I wrote this book, I didn’t read a lot of thrillers. I’m actually a huge fan of romance novels! I’m also a fan of procedural dramas and true crime film and TV. Very early in my journalism career, I was a former police and court reporter so, I covered a great deal of real-life crime stories that drew national attention. In retrospect that informs my writing. That said, however, I believe “Missing White Woman,” by Kellye Garrett, Caroline Kepnes’ “You,” and perhaps Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” are some possible read-alikes.
4. What are you currently reading?
So, I’m one of those people who reads multiple books at once. I’m also nearly finished reading K.T. Nguyen’s “You Know What You Did,” and I’m also reading Johanna Copeland’s “Our Kind of Game” on Audible. I was just on a panel last week with the latter two at Fall For the Book, Northern Virginia’s largest book festival. But I just finished Percival Everett’s “James” (coincidentally his poetry publisher, Red Hen Press also published “Now You Owe Me.”) And I’m nearly done reading his wife’s novel, “Colored Television.” He’s married to Danzy Senna.
5. Your novel is about serial killers, did you ever get scared while working on this novel?
Not really, but it did take me to some dark places. I did have a lot of fun coming up with the twists, of which there are several. I’m really pleased those are resonating with readers.
Aliah Wright’s debut novel, “Now You Owe Me,” is critically acclaimed with Library Journal recommending her book for “fans of Tana French, Gillian Flynn, and Karin Slaughter." Most recently, Wright has been featured in “The Root,” where she discusses how to write an alluring villain and dynamic Black female hero. Her novel is on sale wherever books are sold, including local bookstores and online at Wal-Mart, Target, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. You can learn more about her at www.aliahwright.com or follow her Booktok channel @aliahwrites
Givewaway: I am giving away one copy of NIGHT MAGIC: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens and Other Marvels of the Dark by Leigh Ann Henion. The title pretty much sums it up, but this is such a beautiful book about what happens in nature after hours. Henion takes readers along on her first-account journeys with these incredible nocturnal animals. If you’re a fan of Aimee Nezhukumatahil’s World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments or if you love reading about nature, you’ll love this book!
To Enter: Visit THIS post on Instagram and follow the simple instructions! This giveaway will close on Wednesday, October 30th and I will contact the winner on October 31st. Open to U.S. mailing addresses only.
Latest Podcast:
Listen to my interview with Leigh Ann Henion here on my Books Are My People podcast.
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!)
Books Out Today: (I’ve starred the ones I’ve read)
My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss
Seeking a unique memoir? A fearless investigation of the nature of memory, the lure of self-control, the impact of privilege, scarcity, parents, love. Through narratives of women and food, second-wave feminism and postwar puritanism, and Moss’s own challenges with a health care system that discounts the experiences of those it ought to serve.
I am a huge fan of Moss’s Ghost Wall.
Blood Test by Charles Baxter
Murder can be funny. A comedy about a divorced Midwestern dad who takes a cutting-edge medical test and learns that he has a predisposition to murder.
No One Gets To Fall Apart: A Memoir by Sarah Labrie
For lovers of memoir: Found screaming at passing cars, terrified she’s be murdered by invisible assailents, Sarah Laurie’s mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, compelling Laurie to rethink her childhood, tracing her family history of mental illness, from the dysphoria that plagued her great-grandmother, a granddaughter of slaves, to her own experience with depression as a scholarship student at Brown.
Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer
Love a dystopic series? The fourth volume in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach speculative series. Want to start at the beginning? Then read *Annihilation.
Accidentally Wes Anderson: Adventures by Wally Koval and Amanda Koval
For fans of Wes Anderson’s aesthetic: What started as an Instagram account that I’ve been following for years is now a book of real life places seeminly plucked out of a Wes Anderson film. Follow the instagram account here.
How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund? by Anna Montague
It’s never too late to begin anew: After Magda’s friend Sara passes away, Magda goes through her journal and discovers her friend's last directive: plans for a road trip they would take together in celebration of Magda's upcoming seventieth birthday. So, with Sara's urn in tow, Magda decides to hit the road, crossing the country and encountering a cast of memorable characters--including her sister, from whom she's been keeping secrets.
Paperback Releases:
*The New Naturals by Gabriel Bump
Is it hard to start an underground society? An abandoned restaurant on a hill off the highway in Western Massachusetts doesn't look like much. But to Rio, a young Black woman bereft after the loss of her newborn child, this hill becomes more than a safe haven--it becomes a place to start over with her husband. Soon their utopia begins to take shape and attracts the unhoused, the disillusioned, and the spiritually lost. But no matter how much these people all yearn for a sanctuary from the existential dread of life above the surface, what happens if this new society can't actually work?
*The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz
A mystery on an island: Talia March, Pallas Llewellyn, and Amelia Rivers, bonded by a night none of them can remember, are dedicated to uncovering the mystery of what really happened to them months ago--an experience that amplified innate psychic abilities in each of them.
Paying Subscribers Corner:
Rock the Vote! The polls are open, PLEASE VOTE HERE for our February Read With Me Book!
Read With Me Series: We’ll meet towards the end of October to discuss this novel in its entirety.
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.
January: Independent Reading - read a book! Let’s discuss what we’ve read at the end of January.
February: Read With Me month. We’ll read a shorter book (around 200 pages) in February. The title will be announced soon. Stay tuned.
I hope you all have a wonderfully bookish week! What are you looking forward to reading on or off this list? Share below.
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The Night Island sounds very intriguing.