Books Are My People Weekly Newsletter
out today, paperback releases and more!
We made it to Winter Break! I know some schools are in session this week, but I’m so happy for my kids to have a little break. We have a big storm heading towards L.A. and I’m excited for the rain. There’s nothing I love more than staying in my jammies and reading during a storm. I am NOT so excited about seeing how our 70-pound foster dog does in the rain. Will she brave the wet outdoors to go potty? Or will she pee on the floor? (She’s never had an accident in the house, so I’m optimistic.)
And my son turned 18! He’s an adult. I just can’t believe it. Mostly because I still feel 18, which is a good thing!!
But there’s nothing that’s more humbling than family hockey night, which is tonight. Yes, I will suit up and participate, but the whole time I will be saying, “please don’t fall and break anything,” on a loop.
The votes are in and Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang will be our February Read With Me selection! This is a Read Along for subscribers. Join for the year at a discounted rate, or join for the month of February for just $8. Get yourself a copy of the book for the holidays! We will read a quarter of the book each week, beginning February 5th. Each week in February, I will release a video / post about the book and participants are free to chime in. I can’t wait and I hope you join us.
My upcycled handmade journals are still on sale over at Etsy, but time is running out! I’ve had so many sales lately and I can’t thank you enough for supporting my small business! Here is a link to my shop and the journals that are left…. I’ll be posting a new crop in the new year, but they will return to their original price ($25, currently $15.) Also, for fun, I wanted to show you how I wrap purchases! I always use upcycled paper and apply some homemade stamp decorations. And I make little envelopes in which to house loose stickers . I always include a feather from our chickens (no, I don’t pluck them! They shed naturally and I collect them.) You can even use them to paint or write with inks. I do! Purchasers also get a handmade, original collage with a note and a Books Are My People bookmark and a sticker.
Books Are My People: A Podcast Companion Newsletter
(click here to listen to the most recent episode of my book recommendation podcast.)
The best way you can support this show 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!)
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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!
Let’s get to the books! When I say today is the slowest publication day, I’m not lying. The good news is December 26th is a BIG Day! So keep that in mind. Even Book Reporter has only TWO books listed as coming out today!
Out Today:
The Waltz of Reason: The Entanglement of Mathmatics and Philosophy by Karl Sigmund
In The Waltz of Reason, Sigmund shows how mathematics and philosophy together have shaped our understanding of space, chance, logic, cooperation, voting, and the social contract.
key words: history, philosophy, math, ethics, epistemology, essays
The Black Joy Project: A Literary and Visual Love Letter to How We Thrive by Kleaver Cruz
Black Joy is everywhere. From the bustling streets of Lagos to hip-hop blasting through apartment windows in the Bronx. From the wide-open coastal desert of Namibia to the lush slopes of Jamaica's Blue Mountains. From the thriving tradition of Candomblé in Bahia to the innovative and trendsetting styles of Soweto, and beyond, Black Joy is present in every place that Black people exist. Now--at last--is a one-of-a-kind celebration of this truth and a life-giving testament to one of the most essential forces that fuels Black life: The Black Joy Project.
key words: Essays, Art, African American, Black Culture
He'll protect her...whether she likes it or not.
Riona Griffin is gorgeous, intelligent, and iron-willed, determined to carve her name in the family ledger without a man at her side. But when she barely survives an unexpected attack on her life, her family hires Raylan Boone as her bodyguard--a rancher, a soldier, and a southern boy with plenty of charm to burn.
key words: romance, suspense, crime
He's been told that good girls like bad boys...and he's as bad as they come.
They call Vaughn Spencer an angry god, but to Lenora Astalis, he is nothing but a heartless prince. His parents rule this town, its police, every citizen and boutique on Main Street--and all Lenora owns is the grudge against him for the time he almost killed her. Not to mention that between hooking up with a different girl every weekend, breaking hearts and noses and rules alike, Vaughn still finds the time to give Lenora hell during their senior year. She fights back tooth and nail...but she never expects him to chase her across the ocean for an art program after graduation.
key words: London, art, romance, suspense
Paperback Releases:
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. Over a century later, the Honeys' descendants and a diverse group of neighbors are desperately poor, isolated, and often hungry, but nevertheless protected from the hostility awaiting them on the mainland.
During the tumultuous summer of 1912, Matthew Diamond, a retired, idealistic but prejudiced schoolteacher-turned-missionary, disrupts the community's fragile balance through his efforts to educate its children. His presence attracts the attention of authorities on the mainland who, under the influence of the eugenics-thinking popular among progressives of the day, decide to forcibly evacuate the island, institutionalize its residents, and develop the island as a vacation destination.
A spellbinding story of resistance and survival, This Other Eden is an enduring testament to the struggle to preserve human dignity in the face of intolerance and injustice.
How far would you run to escape your past?
Venice Beach, Los Angeles. A paradise on earth. Tourists flock to the golden coast and the promise of Hollywood. But for eight strangers at a beach-front hostel, there is far more on their minds than an extended vacation. All of them are running from something. And they all have secrets they'd kill to keep...
Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn't going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain--questions about college, love, and life in general.
Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an ax.
The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can't explain. This was no break-in. Someone's lying about what happened in the woodshed.
Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.
How will you spend your well-deserved free time over the break?
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.
