Books Are My People Weekly Newsletter
out today, paperback releases and more!
Dear Reader,
I am back from a four-day trip to Phoenix, Arizona, where it was blazing hot! But I found creative ways to escape the heat like visiting the Museuum of Modern Art, going to a matinee produuction of the musical Waitress, and of course, finding refuge in cold hockey rinks. I think I may be the only person who travelled to Arizona with mittens.
PAYING SUBSCRIBERS: The polls are open, PLEASE VOTE HERE for our February Read With Me Book!
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.
Let Me Help You Discover Books You Might Not Otherwise Read! You can learn more about me by visiting my introductory post here.
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)
*Clean by Alia Trabucco Zeran
Explore high-tension power dynamics:A young girl has died and the family's maid is being interrogated. She must tell the whole story before arriving at the girl's death. I finished this book so quickly and can’t wait to share more about it on my podcast. It’s fantastic!
Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery
Humorous Historical Fiction: a novel about the residents of a women's hotel in 1960s New York City.
Don’t Be A Stranger by Susan Minot
Explore Complicated Relationships And Desire: Ivy Cooper is 52 years old when Ansel Fleming first walks into her life. Twenty years her junior, a musician newly released from prison on a minor drug charge, Ansel's beguiling good looks and quiet intensity instantly seduce her. Despite the gulf between their ages and experience the physical chemistry between them is overpowering,
Outermark by Jason Brown
Fictional History: The tiny, fictional island of Outermark sits thirty miles off the coast in the waters between Maine and Nova Scotia. When Corson Wills, one of the last people to have lived on the island, is asked to recount its history, he begins by describing it as "a rock in the ocean where no one lives anymore." Corson's tale, and those of his ancestors who also lived there, ferry the reader between the 1980s, when lobster fishing is the only remaining industry, and the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, days of great sailing ships to the East Indies but also of conflicts between the earliest Native residents and newly arrived colonial settlers.
The Ancients by John Larison
Cli-fy Survival Story: From the author of Whisky When We’re Dry, a young boy and his older sisters find themselves suddenly and utterly alone, orphaned in an abandoned fishing village. Their food supplies dwindling, they set out across a breathtaking yet treacherous wilderness in search of the last of their people.
Down the coast, raiders deliver the children's mother, along with the rest of their human cargo, to the last port city of a waning empire. Determined to reunite with her family, she plots her escape--while her fellow captives plan open revolt.
Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth
If You Like Books About Writers: Meet Libby Weeks, author of the mega-best-selling fantasy series. When her manuscript is already months overdue to her publisher and rabid fans around the world are growing impatient, Libby is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. After she forgets her dog at the park one day, Libby has to admit it: she needs help finishing the last book.Desperately, she turns to eleven-year-old superfan Peanut Bixton.
Paperback Releases:
*Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin
Quirky Humor and New Adult Fiction: From the author of a favorite book of mine, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, Enid is obsessed with space. She can tell you all about black holes and their ability to spaghettify you without batting an eye in fear. Her one major phobia? Bald men. But she tries to keep that one under wraps. When she's not listening to her favorite true crime podcasts on a loop, she's serially dating a rotation of women from dating apps. At the same time, she's trying to forge a new relationship with her estranged half-sisters after the death of her absent father. When she unwittingly plunges into her first serious romantic entanglement, Enid starts to believe that someone is following her.
There Should Have Been Eight by Nalini Singh
Gothic Suspense: From the author of Quiet In Her Bones (I loved this book!) They met when they were teenagers. Now they've gathered to reminisce at Bea's family's estate, a once-glorious mansion straight out of a gothic novel. But when the weather turns and they're snowed in at the edge of eternity, the pretense of normality gives way to long-buried grief, bitterness, and rage. Underneath it all, there's the nagging feeling that Bea's shocking death wasn't what it was claimed to be. And before the weekend is through, the truth will be unleashed--no matter the cost. . . .
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.
November: Book to Film Series: Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. Read the book, watch the movie, or both!
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.
Books Are My People: A Podcast Companion Newsletter
(click here to listen to the most recent episode of my book recommendation podcast.)
And, if you haven't yet, the greatest gift would be to rate my show, wherever you listen!
These look terrific - esp excited about Libby Lost and Found
What does New Adult Fiction mean? Is it a specific genre?