“It looked like the world
was covered in a cobbler crust
of brown sugar and cinnamon.”
~ Sarah Addison Allen
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In November, an outing in the front yard involves scrabbling through piles of leaves; two weeks later, with December mere hours away, our almost year old puppy is much easier to track since I can follow his footprints through a foot of snow. This week acts as the fulcrum in the seesaw between fall and winter. We need to put on our bibs for a hike, but we can go coatless as long as we aren't sledding.* The pure joy on our dog's face from a snow bath is a huge relief for the rest of us, since it's no longer mud baths he's indulging in. Meanwhile, our days at the store go from silence while we frantically restock the shelves to the rushing sound of wind as weborders and customers begin pouring in from all sides. Back and forth from fall to winter, from silence to clamoring, and from deep breathing to hyperventilating. Emails will be short for the rest of the year, but I promise to keep picking the most interesting titles we can find, even with limited writing time! So many great books, and so many great lists will be coming your way including our best-selling titles of the year!
*It has come to my attention that not everyone knows that "bibs" don't refer to what goes around a baby's neck, but snow pants with shoulder straps and chest - similar to overalls, but snow proof.
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The NPR review by Kristen Martin was entitled: "Gentrifier crafts a narrative about Detroit in darkly comic vignettes." Her reveiw is so good, I put it here for you to read.
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From the Kirkus Review: On a small Michigan farm, a freaky, mind-controlling pig named Pearl messes with people's heads to avenge the cruel mistreatment of his species.
Before farmer Walt Kopple acquired Pearl as a piglet, someone cruelly abused her. Through an eerie form of ESP, Pearl learned to manipulate people's thoughts and silently command other pigs. Though the wild premise of the book is initially hard to take seriously, you quickly surrender to the creepy vibe and the Bird Box author's ability to keep you guessing. Part twisted fairy tale, part animal rights protest, part PTSD drama, and part Triumph the Insult Dog, the novel never runs out of unsettling doors to open. |
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From the PW Review: Journalist Bacon ( click to view all of his titles here) delivers a heartfelt narrative about the leadership skills he learned when he returned to his alma mater to coach the lowest-ranked high school hockey team in Michigan. When Bacon arrived in 2000, the Ann Arbor Huron High School River Rats hadn’t won a game in over a year, their four best players had just graduated, and the current crop was “unfocused” and perversely proud of their “loser” status. He began turning things around by being strict on two rules—“work hard and support your teammates." Soon enough, the team members were leading themselves and positive results followed: three years later, the team was ranked fourth in the state. Interspersed are moving stories about the confidence, motivation, and humility the players gained from their years with Bacon. These valuable lessons will inspire readers regardless of whether they’ve ever picked up a hockey stick. Click for full book info.
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The Reviews Hub: Lenson has an an extensive background in show development, and is well placed to suggest that when it comes to musicals, we’ve got them all wrong.
Lenson’s book takes aim at the preconceptions we have about musicals: gooey, sentimental shows where characters break into song at opportune moments. Instead, Lenson states, “musicals ask audiences…to allow themselves to get overwhelmed”. The musical may feel like too much, but that is entirely the point.
Lenson argues that many in the industry view ‘theatre’ and ‘musical theatre’ through different lenses. Theatre is serious, intentional and worthy. A musical becomes more legitimate, the closer it aligns to a play.
After a pandemic that put the theatrical world on pause, Lenson’s ideas are not only about sparking joy, that burst of song, but required reading for an industry that needs to diversify if it is to survive. Click for full book info.
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From the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): Paris-based, Australian-born bookbinder, Alex Landragin,'s absorbing evocation of distinct historical periods and star-crossed lovers is suffused with myriad incarnations of the mystical and spiritual, as well as the grimy and gritty. Like the literary embodiment of a set of brightly painted Russian matryoshka nesting dolls, Landragin has succeeded in writing a multilayered work of speculative fiction that, at its best, had me thinking of David Mitchell’s experimental and engrossing Cloud Atlas ... Just as the dolls fit into one another, Crossings all makes sense at the end, neatly and satisfactorily resolving its multiple narrative threads and possibilities with grace, attention to detail and emotional acuity. No matter which narrative path a reader takes, there is no sense of confusion or dissatisfaction, just a little sadness at having to farewell such a fine book. Click for full book info.
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From the Kirkus review: Intriguing tale of a young Scottish woman who traveled to Africa to find her lost fiance.
Cleveland-based author Ricca clearly relishes the discovery of strange, off-the-beaten-path stories. While researching Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye, he managed to secure the heretofore undisclosed diaries of Olive MacLeod (1880-1936), a Scottish aristocrat who was distraught when she learned that her fiance, naturalist and adventurer Boyd Alexander, had disappeared in West Africa in 1910. Letting his subject “tell [the story] herself” while avoiding the temptation to “reach in from the future and fix things,” the author engagingly re-creates her relationship with Alexander and determination to find him when he went missing.
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From the Kirkus review: A young couple falls in love in 21st-century New York City: Is it fate, or was their connection foretold by their ancestors?
We are the sum of the people who made us, Caribbean American writer Yanique tells us in her new novel. Their hopes and dreams may bear no resemblance to our own, may in fact be directly opposed to what we want and need, but their stories are the foundations from which we blossom. A long and compelling road leads to the protagonists' love story, one lined with mistakes, regrets, and other emotional flotsam. Look to your roots, Yanique urges us, and maybe you’ll see the outline of your future.
A rich and honest examination of family histories, cultural disconnection, and the way people fall in love. Click for full book info.
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From the Kirkus review: A Somali immigrant in 1950s Wales is wrongly accused of a coldblooded murder.
This novel is based on the real-life case of Mahmood Mattan, who, in 1952, was executed for the murder of a Jewish shop owner in Cardiff, here called Violet Volacki. The miscarriage of justice, as Mohamed portrays it, is rooted in the racism and religious bigotry that hounded Black Muslim immigrants from British Somaliland (part of what’s now Somaliland).
Mahmood’s fate is never much in doubt (an epilogue brings the story up to date) but it’s an engrossing and tense story all the same. From Mahmood’s interior monologue to court transcripts to his conversations with Laura, the senses of loss and cruelty are palpable.
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From the STARRED PW review: Ghanaian author Adjapon’s fierce feminist coming-of-age debut melds the personal and political amid the violent upheaval of 1970s Ghana. At nine, Esi Agyekum knows plenty of secrets, including her Ghanaian father’s affair, which resulted in a younger half-sibling. As Esi matures, so does her narration, and she outlines not only the secrets she keeps, such as her college boyfriend, but also those that were kept from her, such as her sister Mansa’s history of abuse by her husband, which is eventually revealed in a letter to Esi.
Sharp, observant, and often bitingly funny, Adjapon’s novel captures a country divided by class, ethnicity, and political loyalty and a character who might have a chance to soar on the winds of social change. This is a winner. Click for full book info.
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Click the Adult or the Kids/YA links in the images and get the jump on tomorrow's releases today!
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(These seem to be everywhere right now!)
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Wolf makes alpha through an unexpected and unexpected series of events as seen through the human eye. For the lone wolf in all of us. Click for full book info.
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Sarah knows the neuroscience behind why affirmations work, so her book brings the best of the best. She's a powerhouse encouraging readers to experience the "woo woo" through scientific discovery. Her affirmations activate the ventral striatum and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. In other words, this book can literally activate the brain's reward centers. Click for full book info.
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Claire has done what I didn't think could be done: she wrote a cute Christmas story that someone as cynical as me enjoyed! (I guess I it did have just a bit of a dark side as well.) Protagonist Bill Furlong is a coal merchant in Ireland circa 1985 who makes a coal delivery, and also makes a terrible discovery. This is just such fantastic introspective fiction. The book clocks in at about 114 pages, so it won’t keep you up all night. I'd liken the writing style to that of Leif Enger, and encourage you to pick it up for a nice snowy afternoon. Click here for the full review!
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This is a great stocking stuffer for people who enjoy playing strategic board games. It is a two-player game where the object is to use your bug tiles to surround your opponent's queen tile. Whoever surrounds the other queen first, wins! This is a fantastic strategy game. Anyone that is a fan of classic card games, backgammon, dominoes, or chess will love this. Usually, a game only takes about 20 minutes. I have played back-to-back games for 2 hours before looking up. The other great thing is it is a very portable game. You just need about a 2 foot by 2 foot flat area to play. We often would take it to a restaurant to play or a waiting room. Don’t wait to pick it up before we are all out. Click for the full review!
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You read that right. I mean... are we really surprised that the man who created Middle-Earth also drew pictures of it? Of course he did! And now they are all in with the text. Hooray! Perfect gift for any hobbits, elves, dwarves, or wizards in your life!
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background image credit: Patrick Tomasso @impatrickt
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