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. Please consider purchasing recommended books through my Bookshop.org affiliate links. It’s a great way to support the show and an ethical way to support your local bookstore. (You can even buy books I don’t link in my shop!)
Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 27th at 9 am PT: Let’s Make Art and Chat About Book Covers! It’s free and open to all, however, you must sign up using the link below.
I am giving away one copy of Here After by Amy Lin, which releases today. Here is the link for the giveaway.
This giveaway will close on Wednesday, March 27th.
The votes are in! Our next Read With Me selection will be:
The Book of Ayn by Lexi Freiman. The first video will drop and the discussion boards will open on Monday, May 6th. We’ll read about 25% of the book a week (it’s not long). Paying subscribers, you’re automatically in! Everyone else, you can join for the month of May for $8, or for free if you recommend three people who sign up for this newsletter (make sure you time it right!) Or upgrade your subscription and participate in the Read With Me Series, book to film adaptations, casual book talks and other perks including giveaways.
This week’s Books Are My People podcast guest is Garrard Conley, author of Boy Erased and All the World Beside. Listen to the episode here.
Let Me Help You Discover Books You Might Not Otherwise Read!
Out Today:
(I’ve starred the ones I’ve read.)
*All the World Beside by Garrard Conley
This is a deeply moving love story between two men in Puritan New England.
key words: historical fiction, New England, found family
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristin Perrin
A fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer.
key words: cozy mystery, country estate
This novel follows two siblings-turned-roommates navigating an absurd world on the verge of calamity--a Seinfeldian novel of existentialism and sisterhood.
key words: sisters, Brooklyn, deadpan humor, anxiety
You’d Look Better As A Ghost by Joanna Wallace
A comic thriller following the trials and tribulations of Claire, a part-time serial killer, who is keen to keep her favorite hobby a secret--despite the efforts of a determined blackmailer.
key words: psychological thriller, murder, imposter syndrome
Perris, California by Rachel Stark
Twenty-seven-year-old Tessa is pregnant with her third child and living in a trailer on her mother-in-law's property. She encounters the woman she used to love--leading Tessa to question the very foundations of the life she's built.
key words: abusive past, loss, friendship, courage, trauma
Pieces of a Girl by Stephanie Kuehnert
Told in varied narrative styles, including journal entries, original illustration, and pages torn from her actual diaries and zines, this is the memoir of Stephanie's life as a struggling outsider who survived substance and relationship abuse to become a strong young woman after years and years trapped in a cycle that sometimes seemed to have no escape.
key words: memoir, illustrated, abuse, addiction
Monsters We Have Made by Lindsay Starck
Thirteen years ago, Sylvia Gray's young daughter, Faye, attacked her babysitter in order to impress the Kingman, a monster she and her best friend had encountered on the Internet. When the now twenty-three-year-old Faye goes missing, leaving her toddler behind, Sylvia launches a search that propels her back into the past and back into the Kingman's orbit.
key words: familial love, parenthood, literary suspense
Paperback Releases:
*The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel
One of my favorite reads of 2023: a grieving mother and her two daughters discover a wooly mammoth that sends them on a globetrotting expedition. The book tackles mother / daughter relationships, the ethics of science and climate change all with great humor.
Listen to Ausubel’s guest author recommendation on the latest episode of Books Are My People.
*The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises--especially to ourselves--by the bestselling and beloved author of The Guncle.
*The God of Endings by Jaqueline Holland
Collette LeSange has been hiding a dark truth: She is immortal. In 1834, Collette's grandfather granted her the gift of eternal life and since then, she has endured centuries of turmoil and heartache. Now, almost 150 years later, Collette is a lonely artist running an elite fine art school for children in upstate New York. But her life is suddenly upended by the arrival of a gifted child from a troubled home, the return of a stalking presence from her past, and her own mysteriously growing hunger for blood.
*Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
A comedy writer thinks she's sworn off love, until a dreamy pop star flips the script on all her assumptions--a "smart, sophisticated, and fun" (Oprah Daily) novel from the author of Eligible, Rodham, and Prep.
Subscriber Notes:
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 on April 2nd. Time: TBD
Feel free to upgrade to paying even if only for one month and check it out!
Events:
Online Writing, Reading and Art Events This Week (three things I love!)
Reading Events:
Tuesday, March 26th at 4 pm PT: Writers’ Room of Boston, Reading From The RoomWriting Events:
Art Events:
Tuesday, March 26th at 11 am PT: Odd Orange will be holding a shop fronts live zoom drawing session. I attended her last session and really enjoyed it. Link to sign up here.
Wednesday, March 27th at 12 pm PT Paint a Colorful Watercolor Portrait and Q and A with
with Sktchy. Click here to register!
We’re on week 4 of
’s The Sketchbook Games Sketchbook Scavenger Hunt This week, the theme is Farm Life. I should go outside and paint my flock of chickens! But this week has been insanely busy.Saturday, March 30th at 3 am PT, Emma Carlisle with hold a self-portrait session. I will be asleep, so I’ll have to catch the replay. Learn more about this session here.
I SO enjoyed
and ‘s vintage album covers reimagined as Cats drawing session. Here are some images I created from that session
Recognize the albums? Devo, Kiss, B-52’s and David Bowie.
Last, but not least, I am making my way through
‘s portrait class. I love attending her classes live, but it wasn’t in the cards for me this time around. Thankfully, any of her classes can be watched on demand at your leisure, which is a pleasure. How sweet is this face? Even if I’ve wonkified it. Check out Char’s backlog of recorded classes here.
I hope you all have a wonderfully bookish week! Any new releases out today that you’re excited to share? Leave me a comment!
Like what you read? You can buy me a coffee!
Books Are My People: A Podcast Companion Newsletter
(click here to listen to the most recent episode of my book recommendation podcast.)
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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.
Thank you for the shoutouts!! Today is the day we get to paint with you at 12pm est. I’m looking forward to it!!
Thanks a lot for sharing the whole month the challenge prompts and I love seeing what you have done! I have been a bit silent cause I am reading a lot now, I partially blame your awesome newsletter cause it has made me more curious again 😅😅