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Here are lists of book suggestions that I get from various libraries and around the net.

----- Secret Lives
by Mark De Castrique

Starring: petite 75-year-old Ethel Crestwater, an ex-FBI agent who runs an Arlington, Virginia, boarding house and mostly rents to government agents; grad student Jesse Cooper, her distant cousin and new boarder.

A shot in the dark: When one of Ethel's boarders is killed in front of her house in the middle of the night, Jesse is surprised that elderly Ethel is cool under pressure. But he soon learns more about his multifaceted relative when she enlists him and others to help solve the case.

For fans of: entertaining reads with senior women as sleuths, like Deanna Raybourn's latest, Killers of a Certain Age.



----- Because I Could Not Stop for Death
by Amanda Flower

Introducing: Emily Dickinson, a 25-year-old, independent-minded poet in 1855 Amherst, Massachusetts, whose father is a U.S. congressman; Willa Noble, the Dickinson family's new live-in maid.

What happens: Upset when her younger brother dies in a suspicious accident, Willa talks with Emily, who's always kind to her, and they commence an investigation that takes them to Washington, D.C.

For fans of: engaging historical mysteries starring famous literary women, such as Nicola Upson's Josephine Tey novels or Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen mysteries.



----- Blackwater Falls
by Ausma Zehanat Khan

What it is: a timely police procedural and series opener starring a Muslim woman detective from Denver Police's Community Response Unit, who's assigned a volatile case in a small Colorado mountain town.

What happens: Investigating the murder of a 16-year-old Syrian refugee who was found crucified to the door of a mosque, Det. Inaya Rahman thinks the case is linked to two missing Somali girls. But to sort it all out, she must deal with sexism, anti-Islam sentiment, and police corruption.

Reviewers say: "stunning...not to be missed" (Publishers Weekly).



----- Sinister Graves
by Marcie R. Rendon

1970s Minnesota: Cash Blackbear is an unforgettable 19-year-old Ojibwe college student who has psychic dreams and sometimes works alongside her mentor Sheriff Wheaton.

After the Red River floods... the body of a Native woman floats down river. To identify her, Cash deals with a strange pastor and his wife.

** Series alert: Sinister Graves is the atmospheric 3rd Cash Blackbear novel, but fans of fascinating characters can start here, especially those who like William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor mysteries or Ramona Emerson's recent debut, Shutter.



----- A Death in Door County
by Annelise Ryan

Introducing: Morgan Carter, who runs Odds and Ends, a Loon County, Wisconsin, book and curiosity shop she inherited from her parents, who also passed along their passion for cryptozoology.

Stranger things: After two people are found drowned in a nearby lake with mysterious bite marks, Morgan agrees to help the police chief try to figure out what caused the injuries before word gets out.

Why you might like it: This fun 1st in the Monster Hunter series offers appealing characters (including a sweet dog) and a touch of romance.


If you like: Knives Out
Try the books below if you're a fan of filmmaker Rian Johnson's Knives Out (2019) and the just released Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, both of which harken back to the Golden Age of mystery.



----- The Decagon House Murders
by Yukito Ayatsuji

The Murder Club: Seven Japanese university students with nicknames inspired by famous mystery authors -- Agatha, Carr, Ellery, Leroux, Orczy, Poe, and Van Dine -- plan to spend a week on an isolated island that was the scene of terrible murders six months earlier.

The problem: A new murder occurs and there's no way off the island, so they must figure out how to stay safe and who is after them.

Why you might like it: Originally published in Japan in 1987, this atmospheric novel is part of the Japanese Honkaku tradition, which prioritizes the puzzle aspect of mysteries.



----- A Forgotten Murder
by Jude Deveraux

A holiday? Wealthy Florida author and amateur sleuth Sara Medlar takes her niece Sara and friend Jack for a stay at an English estate.

Surprise guests: Sara's also invited five others, all of whom were there 25 years ago when two people mysteriously disappeared. With her friends' help, Sara plans to plot out the truth.

Why you might like it: This 3rd in the Medlar mysteries series by bestselling author Jude Deveraux (who's best known for her romance novels) is an engaging modern country house mystery with an intriguing cast of characters and an entertaining wrap up.



----- They All Fall Down
by Rachel Howzell Hall

Trip of a lifetime: Miriam Macy, whose life is off the rails, accepts the chance to compete in a reality show competition, sailing to a private island off the coast of Mexico with six strangers: an ex-cop, a chef, a financial advisor, a nurse, a lawyer, and a happy young widow.

The lies: There isn't a TV show, and they've been lured there due to secrets they harbor. When strange accidents start to happen, Miriam realizes she must figure out what's going on or die trying.

Why you might like it: In this new take on Agatha's Christie's And Then There Were None, "Hall slips from funny to darkly frightening with elegant ease" (Publishers Weekly).



----- Magpie Murders
by Anthony Horowitz

The frustration: While reading Alan Conway's latest mystery manuscript starring his popular Poirot-esque detective, his editor Susan Ryeland discovers that the final chapters revealing the killer are missing.

What happens: Conway has suddenly (and suspiciously) died, so Susan tries to piece together the book's ending by interviewing his friends and family -- which leads to her realization that his characters are stand-ins for real people, and the manuscript might be related to his death.

Why you might like it: The cleverly plotted 1st in the Magpie Murders series, which is the inspiration for a new PBS series of the same name, has suspense, a novel-within-a-novel, and delightful Golden Age elements.



----- A Will to Kill
by R.V. Raman

Party time: Famed detective Harith Athreya is invited to a house party at remote (and reportedly cursed) Greybrooke Manor in southern India's misty Nilgiri Hills. His host is patriarch Bhaskar Fernandez, who's made two wills, one if he dies naturally and one if he doesn't.

Isolation: After Harith's arrival, a landslide cuts the party off from the world, and then there's a murder.

Why you might like it: With its Agatha Christie-esque detective and isolated country house setting, this 1st in the Harith Athreya series provides a fresh, fun take on beloved mystery tropes.

----- The Attic Child
by Lola Jaye

Starring: Dikembe, a twelve-year-old boy brought to Britain after he was taken from his home near the Congo River in 1905 by an English explorer; young orphan Lowra, whose life takes a dark turn after her father's death in 1974.

What unites them: an attic room, where each child spends most of their time locked up at the whims of cruel adults and a shared struggle to survive a profound burden of trauma.

Inspired by: the short life of Ndugu M'Hali (also known as Kalulu), an African boy brought to England by Henry Morton Stanley after the latter's famous journey to rescue Dr. David Livingstone.



----- Hester
by Laurie Lico Albanese

What it's about: Abandoned by her husband upon their arrival in 1820s Salem, Massachusetts, Scottish seamstress Isobel Gamble can't help but reflect on her ancestor who was tried as a witch -- even more so after she befriends Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose own ancestor played a major role in the notorious local witch trials.

An unlikely muse: Built on shared feelings of stifled creativity and being outsiders, the connection formed between Isobel and Nathaniel transforms them both and later inspires the creation of The Scarlet Letter.

You might also like: The Whale by Mark Beauregard, which similarly imagines the development of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, this time with Nathaniel Hawthorne as the muse.



----- The Matchmaker's Gift
by Lynda Cohen Loigman

Starring: Sara Glikman, a Russian Jewish immigrant whose knack for matchmaking gets her in trouble with the male-dominated marriage brokers in her tight-knit 1920s community; Sara's granddaughter Abby, a divorce attorney in 1990s Manhattan who explores her similar gift after her grandmother's recent death.

Read it for: the heartwarming tone, intricate plotting, and seamless transitions between the alternating perspectives.

Reviewers say: "The details are painstaking but never tedious, and the relationships are exciting, sincere, and beautiful" (Booklist).



------ Jacqueline in Paris
by Ann Mah

Before Jackie O: Vassar college girl Jacqueline Bouvier spent a year abroad in post-WWII Paris, mingling with aristocratic French families and communist student activists alike.

Read it for: a vividly rendered portrait of the savvy future First Lady, and of European citizens struggling to rebuild trust among one another.

Try this next: Louis Bayard's Jackie & Me.



------ The Ways We Hide
by Kristina McMorris

The setup: In the early 1940s, Fenna Vos is part of a traveling Houdini-inspired magical act, working with an increasingly volatile partner and trying to forget her traumatic past.

What changes: An audience member offers Fenna an unusual job with British Intelligence after noticing her particular set of skills, which could prove invaluable against the Nazis.

Reviewers say: "Readers will be drawn into Fen’s frustrations, anger, terror, joy, and constant drive to innovate when new challenges are put in her way" (Booklist).



------ Nights of Plague
by Orhan Pamuk

The setting: the (fictional) Mediterranean island Mingheria in the year 1900, a remote outpost of the Ottoman Empire that's home to Greeks, Turks, Christians, Muslims, and home-grown nationalists.

The situation: a plague of uncertain provenance breaks out and as the international community enforces a strict quarantine, tensions build and threaten to turn the island into a powder keg.

About the author: Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish novelist, memoirist, and social critic whose best known English-language works include Snow and My Name is Red.



----- The Whalebone Theatre
by Joanna Quinn

What it's about: Cristabel Seagrave and her half-siblings Flossie and Digby pass their wild and carefree childhoods on a family estate off the coast of Devon after World War I, drawing strength and skills from those times as they work in various capacities serving the Allied effort during World War II.

Read it for: the whimsical yet moving tone, complex characters, and examination of halcyon days captured in amber.

For fans of: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, or Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.



----- The Village Idiot
by Steve Stern

What it is: a lyrical, leisurely paced reimagining of the life of Jewish Belarusian painter Chaim Soutine, with a special focus on his years in Paris between the first and second World Wars.

Is it for you? In a portrayal as complex as the man himself, author Steve Stern readers will be immersed in the lushly descriptive language as they navigate the novel's stylistically complex writing style.

Reviewers say: "An outstanding portrait by a writer at the top of his form" (Kirkus Reviews).



------ The Last Dreamwalker
by Rita Woods

What it's about: After her mother's death, Layla Hurley inherits some family property on island off the coast of South Carolina, a haunting place steeped deeply in its Gullah-Geechee heritage. Sharing this inheritance is her cousin Charlotte, setting them up for an acrimonious relationship until they discover unexpected common bond they share.

For fans of: magical realism and atmospheric settings that feel haunted by the past.

You might also like: Conjure Women by Afia Atakora; The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates.



------ The Picture Bride
by Lee Geum-yi

How it starts: In 1918, a young Korean woman named Willow becomes a "picture bride" and travels to Hawaii to meet the new husband she was told was a well-off land owner who would allow her to continue her education.

What's next? Willow arrives in Hawaii with other picture brides to find were misled about nearly everything, and as Korea's troubled early 20th-century history unfolds, she will have to navigate complexities she never anticipated in order to keep her friends and family together.

Reviewers say: "Historical fiction buffs and readers interested in little-known history will enjoy" (Library Journal).

----- Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story
by Bono

What it is: Grammy Award-winning U2 frontman Bono's candid and conversational memoir discussing his life, career, and the inspiration behind his music.

Why you might like it: Forty U2 songs (each presented as a chapter title) serve as the inventive framing device for Bono's reflections.

Want a taste? "I'm discovering surrender doesn't always have to follow defeat."



----- Ted Kennedy: A Life
by John A. Farrell

What it is: an engaging biography of Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy.

What sets it apart: Pulitzer Prize finalist John A. Farrell utilizes never-before-seen sources, including Kennedy's personal diaries, to offer a nuanced and well-researched portrait of a complex political figure.

Awards buzz: This "definitive" (Publishers Weekly) account was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction.



------ The World Record Book of Racist Stories
by Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar

What it is: comedian Amber Ruffin and her sister Lacey Lamar's funny and thought-provoking follow-up to their bestselling You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism.

What's inside: frank accounts of absurd racist treatment the pair (and their friends and family members) have received.

Reviewers say: "a much-needed wake-up call for anyone who still doesn't believe the severity of anti-Black racism in America" (Kirkus).



------ The White Mosque
by Sofia Samatar

Starring: fantasy novelist Sofia Samatar (The Winged Histories), born to a Swiss Mennonite mother and a Somali Muslim father.

What it's about: Samatar's 2016 pilgrimage to Uzbekistan to visit Ak-Metchet ("The White Mosque"), a village built in the late 19th century by Russian Mennonites.

Read it for: an evocative blend of memoir and travelogue that explores faith, identity, and community.



------ The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
by Stacy Schiff

What it is: a dramatic and page-turning biography of founding father Samuel Adams, penned by Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff (The Witches: Salem, 1692).

Why you might like it: Schiff's richly detailed chronicle reveals the pivotal yet lesser-known role Adams played in the American Revolution.

Reviewers say: "a must-read for colonial history buffs" (Publishers Weekly); "a welcome, fresh study" (Kirkus).


*** 2022 Debuts **

----- The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir
by Karen Cheung

What it is: a lyrical memoir of journalist Karen Cheung's fraught coming of age against the backdrop of a Hong Kong newly under Chinese control.

Read it for: a compelling insider's look at the city, from its alternative music scene to its stratified society and protests for democracy.

Try this next: Louisa Lim's Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong or Mark Clifford's Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World.


------ Deaf Utopia: A Memoir -- and a Love Letter to a Way of Life
by Nyle DiMarco with Robert Siebert

What it's about: Deaf activist, model, and actor Nyle DiMarco's journey toward becoming "the proud Deaf man I am today."

Topics include: DiMarco's upbringing in a multigenerational Deaf family in New York City; navigating ableism in the entertainment industry; coming out as sexually fluid.

Don't miss: the typed approximations of American Sign Language (ASL) DiMarco employs to convey the language's rhythms and charms.



----- Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor's Journey to Broadway's Biggest Stage
by Mickey Rowe

What it's about: how actor and National Disability Theater founder Mickey Rowe fulfilled his lifelong dream of acting.

Read it for: an impassioned celebration of a life well lived.

Did you know? In 2017, Rowe became the first openly autistic actor to play the lead role of autistic teenager Christopher Boone in a stage production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.



------ The High Desert
by James Spooner

What it is: Afro-punk artist and filmmaker James Spooner's graphic memoir depicting his coming of age in 1980s Apple Valley, California.

Art alert: Spooner's realistic, attention-grabbing illustrations and muted colors capture his struggles as a biracial kid living in a predominantly white town.

Try this next: For another bittersweet memoir about an outsider teen who finds solace in punk rock, read Phuc Tran's Sigh, Gone.



------ In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage
by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado

What it's about: Grappling with alcoholism and memories of childhood sexual abuse, Peruvian-born Silicon Valley executive Silvia Vasquez-Lavado began climbing mountains, eventually starting a nonprofit to help girls heal through adventure and becoming the first openly gay woman to climb the Seven Summits.

Movie buzz: Selena Gomez is set to star in a film adaptation of this moving memoir.

What a loverly bunch of mysteries. Two call to me. The Decagon House Murders--Yukito Ayatsuji--six people named for detectives and a fresh murder? Sign me up!

And a mystery featured beloved poet Emily Dickinson. Because I Could Not Stop for Death--Amanda Flower.

While the historical novels and memoirs sound interesting & i see a couple from Best Lists of 2022, i am not adding any of them to my TBR. Nice try! Thanks for the delights.

----- Truth/Untruth
by Mahasweta Devi; translated by Anjum Katyal

What happens: the murder of a pregnant domestic servant in 1980s Calcutta (now Kolkata) reveals a viper's nest of greed, betrayal, and violence among its cut-throat, social-climbing elite.

For fans of: Liane Moriarty's twisty, suspenseful domestic thrillers.

Read this next: Small Deaths by Rijula Das.



----- The Lindbergh Nanny
by Mariah Fredericks

Hopewell, New Jersey, 1932: Nanny Betty Gow is horrifed to discover that her young charge, Charlie, is missing. She can only hope it's another of his father's strange pranks (as history records, unfortunately it isn't).

Read it for: Betty's wrenching first-person narration vividly conveys her love for Charlie, the palpable fear for his safety, and the gnawing distrust that someone close at hand is responsible.

For fans of: Historical mysteries with a true crime edge.



------ The Night Ship
by Jess Kidd

Cast adrift: The lives of motherless children unfold in parallel narratives on an island off Western Australia's coast. In 1629, Mayken (disguised as a boy) navigates the brutal aftermath of a Dutch shipwreck. In 1989, Gil grieves his mother's death as local tensions escalate.

Take a taste: "The greatest shame of humankind is the failure of the strong to protect the weak."

Reviewers say: A "well-researched, spellbindingly dark and folklore-infused novel.... Recommended especially to Alma Katsu's fans" (Booklist).



----- Dinosaurs
by Lydia Millet

What happens: Wealthy but brokenhearted Gil takes refuge in Arizona, where the activities of nearby neighbors (and desert wildlife) pique his interest. Although the novel explores themes of human cruelty (bullying, animal violence), its ending is affirming, joyful, and moving.

Read it for: a leisurely-paced, hopeful story with a likeable protagonist whose second act may be the best one yet.

Try this next: Matthew Quick's We Are the Light.



------ None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive
by Carolyn Prusa

Meet: Ramona, would-be superwoman, juggling a demanding job while toilet training a toddler and fielding her mother's ongoing criticism. And that's before finding out her husband is unfaithful and there's an actual Category 4 hurricane on the way.

Read it for: Peak Gen X pop culture asides and relatable laugh-'til-you-cry scenes of ridiculous problem solving.



------ When Franny Stands Up
by Eden Robins

Calling all Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fans: Franny grows up in 1950s Chicago, feeling out of place both as a Jewish girl and within a family where trauma is very personal.

What happens: performing stand-up gives Franny (and her audience) a shared space to address difficult topics -- racism, war, trauma, guilt, gender identity and sexuality -- with honesty, warmth, and laughter.


------ Signal Fires
by Dani Shapiro

What it's about: A car crash leaves one teen dead and two siblings divided by a secret. The novel moves from era to era, back and forth in time, assembling a cast of characters who must first reconcile inner demons before connecting with others.

Read it for: richly developed, complex characters; a moving, thoughtful meditation on what gives life meaning.

Try this next: A Little Hope by Ethan Joella



------ Flight
by Lynn Steger Strong

Holiday cheer: Three siblings (and spouses, etc.) gather for the first holiday since their mother's death. Some questions about what to do with the family home remain... it'll all probably be fine, right?

Read it for: Realistic blow ups that happen when families lovingly nurtures grudges for years -- and suprising events that can put things into more reasonable perspectives.

For fans of... Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You.

----- Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs
Berwald, Juli
Coral reefs are a microcosm of our planet: wondrously diverse, deeply interconnected, and critically imperiled. They sustain entire ecosystems and protect vulnerable coasts. But corals across the planet are in the middle of an unprecedented die-off, beset by warming oceans, pollution, human damage, and their own devastating pandemic. Even under stress, they are out-of-this world gorgeous, sending out warning flares in fluorescent bursts of yellow, pink, and indigo. Juli Berwald fell in love with coral reefs as a marine biology student, entranced by their beauty and complexity. While she was concerned by bleaching events and coral disease, she didn't fully understand what a dead reef meant until she experienced one on a dive: barren, decaying, and coated in slime. Deeply alarmed, she traveled the world desperate to discover how to prevent their loss. Life on the Rocks is a meditative ode to the reefs and the undaunted scientists working to save them against almost impossible odds. Berwald explores what it means to keep fighting a battle that can't be won, contemplating the inevitable grief of climate change and the beauty of small victories.


----- As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock
Gilio-Whitaker, Dina
Interrogating the concept of environmental justice in the U.S. as it relates to Indigenous peoples, this book argues that a different framework must apply compared to other marginalized communities, while it also attends to the colonial history and structure of the U.S. and ways Indigenous peoples continue to resist, and ways the mainstream environmental movement has been an impediment to effective organizing and allyship.


----- Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divide World
Hayhoe, Katharine
Called “one of the nation's most effective communicators on climate change�� by The New York Times, Katharine Hayhoe knows how to navigate all sides of the conversation on our changing planet. A Canadian climate scientist living in Texas, she negotiates distrust of data, indifference to imminent threats, and resistance to proposed solutions with ease. Over the past fifteen years Hayhoe has found that the most important thing we can do to address climate change is talk about it—and she wants to teach you how.


----- Two Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts
Lee, Jessica J.
Combining an immersive exploration of nature with captivatingly beautiful prose, Jessica J. Lee embarks on a journey to discover her family's forgotten history and to connect with the island they once called home Taiwan is an island of extremes: towering mountains, lush forests, and barren escarpment. Between shifting tectonic plates and a history rife with tension, the geographical and political landscape is forever evolving. After unearthing a hidden memoir of her grandfather's life, Jessica J. Lee seeks to piece together the fragments of her family's history as they moved from China to Taiwan, and then on to Canada. But as she navigates the tumultuous terrain of Taiwan, Lee finds herself having to traverse fissures in language, memory, and history, as she searches for the pieces of her family left behind. Interlacing a personal narrative with Taiwan's history and terrain, Two Trees Make a Forest is an intimate examination of the human relationship with geography and nature, and offers an exploration of one woman's search for history and belonging amidst an ever-shifting landscape.


---- The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us
Lowman, Margaret
Biologist, botanist, and conservationist Meg Lowman--aka 'CanopyMeg'--takes us on an adventure into the 'eighth continent' of the world's treetops, along her journey as a tree scientist, and into climate action.


-----Unbowed: A Memoir
Maathai, Wangari
In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recounts her extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to the world stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, she began a vital poor people's environmental movement, focused on the empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa. Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personal losses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathai continued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya's forests and to restore democracy to her beloved country. Infused with her unique luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai's remarkable story of courage, faith, and the power of persistence is destined to inspire generations to come.


----Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land
Momaday, N. Scott
Momaday reflects on his native ground and its influence on his people. "When I think about my life and the lives of my ancestors, I am inevitably led to the conviction that I, and they, belong to the American land. This is a declaration of belonging. And it is an offering to the earth." he writes. Earth Keeper is a story of attachment, rooted in oral tradition. Momaday recalls stories of his childhood that have been passed down through generations, stories that reveal a profound and sacred connection to the American landscape and a reverence for the natural world. In this moving work, he offers an homage and a warning. Momaday reminds us that the Earth is a sacred place of wonder and beauty; a source of strength and healing that must be protected before it's too late. As he so eloquently yet simply reminds us, we must all be keepers of the Earth.


-----Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land
Penniman, Leah
In 1920, 14 percent of all land-owning US farmers were black. Today less than 2 percent of farms are controlled by black people--a loss of over 14 million acres and the result of discrimination and dispossession. While farm management is among the whitest of professions, farm labor is predominantly brown and exploited, and people of color disproportionately live in "food apartheid" neighborhoods and suffer from diet-related illness. The system is built on stolen land and stolen labor and needs a redesign.


-----Borealis
Sabatini Sloan, Aisha
In Borealis, Aisha Sabatini Sloan writes about a solitary summer visit to Alaska, observing glaciers, shorelines, mountains, bald eagles, and herself. As she studies her surroundings, the myth of Alaska-excitement, exploration, possibility-is complicated by boredom and isolation, and her attempts to set down place in writing are suffused with nostalgia and anxiety. The first title commissioned for the Spatial Species series, Borealis is a shapeshifting logbook of Sabatini Sloan's experiences as a queer woman contemplating her Blackness in the wilderness and in the mysteries of art-making. The Spatial Species series, edited by Youmna Chlala and Ken Chen, investigates the ways we activate space through language. In the tradition of Georges Perec's An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, Spatial Species titles are pocket-sized editions, each keenly focused on place. Instead of tourist spots and public squares, we encounter unmarked, noncanonical spaces: edges, alleyways, diasporic traces. Such intimate journeying requires experiments in language and genre, moving travelogue, fiction, or memoir into something closer to eating, drinking, and dreaming.


-----Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures
Sheldrake, Merlin
Living at the border between life and non-life, fungi use diverse cocktails of potent enzymes and acids to disassemble some of the most stubborn substances on the planet, turning rock into soil and wood into compost, allowing plants to grow. Fungi not only help create soil, they send out networks of tubes that enmesh roots and link plants together in the "Wood Wide Web." Fungi also drive many long-standing human fascinations: from yeasts that cause bread to rise and orchestrate the fermentation of sugar into alcohol; to psychedelic fungi; to the mold that produces penicillin and revolutionized modern medicine. And we can partner with fungi to heal the damage we've done to the planet. Fungi are already being used to make sustainable building materials and wearable leather, but they can do so much more. Fungi can digest many stubborn and toxic pollutants from crude oil to human-made polyurethane plastics and the explosive TNT. They can grow food from renewable sources: edible mushrooms can be grown on anything from plant waste to cigarette butts. And some fungi's antiviral compounds might be able to ease the colony collapse of bees. Merlin Sheldrake's revelatory introduction to this world will show us how fungi, and our relationships with them, are more astonishing than we could have imagined. Bringing to light science's latest discoveries and ingeniously parsing the varieties and behaviors of the fungi themselves, he points us toward the fundamental questions about the nature of intelligence and identity this massively diverse, little understood kingdom provokes.


-----Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
Simard, S.
A personal and scientific work on trees, forests, and the author's profound discoveries of tree communication.


------How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
Smil, Vaclav
An essential analysis of the modern science and technology that makes our twenty-first century lives possible--a scientist's investigation into what science really does, and does not, accomplish. We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check--because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts. In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable--the foolishness of allowing 70 per cent of the world's rubber gloves to be made in just one factory became glaringly obvious in 2020--and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, such that any promises of decarbonization by 2050 are a fairy tale


----A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind
Washington, Harriet A.
Demonstrates how environmental racism influences the racial IQ gap and explains what needs to be done to remedy its effects on marginalized communities.

While the fiction listed doesn't really call to me, the science books are a garden of choices, a couple of which i've read, as well as several i want to read. Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest was a forest of fascinating information. Author & scientist Suzanne Simard seems to be the mother of fungi research, as she's been mentioned in every book i've read on the subject since reading her book. She is the scientist who figured out how the underground work of fungi can save, cure and extend forests.

This would be covered, of course, in another of the above books, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures--Merlin Sheldrake. Fungi are coming into their own after a sort of rediscovery in the last decade or so for medicinal needs, as well as its work in forests.

Another book, which is on my 100 Challenge plans, is Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land--Leah Penniman. This will cover an entirely different angle of racism, as well as hopes for the future.

And these are just the few titles i recognize. Borealis--Aisha Sabatini Sloan sounds good, as does Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land--N. Scott Momaday, both by people of color and how they see & fit into the planet.

Great selections, Alias, thanks for sharing so many.

I'm glad you enjoyed the lists, deb. I thought the science list of books might help with the challenge.

I'm seeing a lot of books on trees. I'm intrigued and will have to check this out further.

As you may recall, i've been reading the long anticipated The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World--Peter Wohlleben. It is full of new-to-me information, perhaps too much. I'm overwhelmed by all the material and feel it isn't as well presented as i'd hoped.

This is the 3rd book i've read on trees, fungi and such. Each is a font of information but i think the science and research is still so ongoing that, at this point, no book will fill all i'd hoped to learn. I'll continue, of course!

madrano wrote: "As you may recall, i've been reading the long anticipated The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World--Peter Wohlleben. It is full of new-to-me information, perhaps too much. I'm overwhelmed by all the material and feel it isn't as well presented as i'd hoped.
..."

I appreciate the review. I am looking for something a bit more basic.

From what i've read thus far, writers presume some knowledge but have no problems introducing basics when they are addressing the specific part of, say, a tree. They presume you know the parts, then, when the chapter is about roots, explain what you know & think, then tell you what you "knew" is now known to be not as obvious.

So, basic but also not. From what i've read thus far Simard's is my favorite but she isn't very basic. The Wohlleben is full of scientific research info (not the details, thank goodness) but sometimes it's too many per (short, at least) chapters. In trying to explain the working parts, so to speak, he shares quite a bit. Too much for my feeble brain to retain, anyway. :-)

Although, now that i think about Simard's book may be basic. She tells readers how she came to her conclusions, as well as why not clear-cutting forests has been proven to be even more awful that originally thought. Then she explains the work of fungi, undergrowth and how all trees seem to benefit. And you learn neat things about her life, as well.

Thanks for the reviews, deb. This was very helpful.

I'm glad to help but i'm in the process of reconsidering Peter Wohlleben's book. I think i was much more frustrated with Libby (only 2nd book with it) rather than the author. Today i saw much of the wisdom in the way he's presenting his facts.

I know, i know--why am i confusing you? Sorry. :-)

madrano wrote: I think i was much more frustrated with Libby (only 2nd book with it) .."

I'm not clear on this. When you download a book, Libby is just like Overdrive. What format are you selecting when you download from Libby ?

I prefer Kindle format and always hesitate when I can only get a format like Hoopla or ePub.

My Libby, from my library, is not like Overdrive in use. In order to transfer my notes, i have to reopen the book and click on another part of the app, then copy & print. It is time consuming but Libby doesn't "allow" me to copy & print directly from the book.

It took a google search before i even figured out this part of transfer via Libby. I almost dread highlighting now. I will try Kindle next but it's taking me awhile to finish the two i have on Libby now. Waiting until they are available again is out of the question.

None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive: A Novel

This looks like it'll be a fun read.

Kim, that title caught my eye, too. It's almost enough to tempt me.

madrano wrote: "My Libby, from my library, is not like Overdrive in use. In order to transfer my notes, i have to reopen the book and click on another part of the app, then copy & print. It is time consuming but L..."

I misunderstood. I thought you were referring to the actual reading the book. You are talking about transferring notes/highlights. Which is something I don't do.

I also don't like reading in Libby because the clock and pages remaining, etc. are not there, as in Overdrive. None of them are really about the technical event of reading but they have managed to throw me off steady reading.

Question. I thought you took notes when reading, which i may have misinterpreted. Does that mean that you write your own notes about what you read? I'm tied to getting the facts right & can seldom never be concise, so opt to copy & paste. My notes get longer & longer in NF. Just curious.

Deb, currently I use the Notions program to make my notes.
What I don't like is that you can't copy and paste those notes elsewhere. I'm not even sure if you can print. I currently don't have a printer so I'm not sure on that.

I do highlight in my Kindle. I seldom make notes in Kindle. When I'm done reading a book, I'll look over my highlights and make notes or sometimes depending on the book I'll just copy/paste my GR review into Notions.

In the past I wrote my notes in a notebook but that was too time consuming. Also my handwriting leaves a lot to be desired.

I was going to see about using another program now that it's the new year. I wouldn't mind using Microsoft Word and Excel. However, the last time I purchased the programs they expired after a year. I was totally unaware that occurs as I used to have those programs on an old computer forever. Maybe they sell ones that don't expire. I should ask next time I go to Best Buy.

Alias Reader wrote: "Deb, currently I use the Notions program to make my notes.
What I don't like is that you can't copy and paste those notes elsewhere. I'm not even sure if you can print. I currently don't have a pr..."

Ok, i see. Thanks for explaining. I would save myself much time if i could recap well. Although, honestly, i like the stats, which have to be copied regardless.

Alias Reader wrote: "I was going to see about using another program now that it's the new year. I wouldn't mind using Microsoft Word and Excel. However, the last time I purchased the programs they expired after a year. I was totally unaware that occurs as I used to have those programs on an old computer forever. Maybe they sell ones that don't expire. I should ask next time I go to Best Buy...."

We didn't know, either, probably because my brother-in-law worked at Microsoft and provided new ones for us. This has ended.

However, by clearing a printed page, using Microsoft Word, i managed to keep using Word. It becomes tedious if i need to write many but so far, so good.

------ Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency
by Andy Greenberg

What it's about: how law enforcement agencies and private contractors around the world trace crypto-funded criminal exploits.

Why you might like it: Technology journalist Andy Greenberg's dramatic true crime tale offers a colorful cast of characters, twists and turns aplenty, and pulse-pounding suspense.

Book buzz: A documentary, podcast, and scripted adaptation of Tracers in the Dark are all currently in development.



------ The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
by Kerri K. Greenidge

What it's about: the complicated legacy of the Quaker abolitionist Grimke family, whose public calls for equality belied their own hypocrisy, self-righteousness, classism, and racism.

For fans of: The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family by Bettye Kearse.

Reviewers say: "A sobering and timely look at how self-centered benevolence can become complicity" (Booklist).



----- The Forever Witness: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder
by Edward Humes

1987: Young Canadian couple Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook were murdered during a road trip to Seattle; their killer was never found.

2018: Snohomish County, WA detective Jim Scharf and genetic genealogist CeCe Moore worked together to solve the crime; their efforts led to the arrest and conviction of Seattle trucker Bill Talbott, whose case is headed to the Washington State Supreme Court.

Read it for: a thought-provoking discussion on the ethics of utilizing ancestry DNA databases for criminal investigations.



----- Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the...
by Roseanne Montillo

What it's about: In 1955, New York socialite Ann Woodward shot and killed her husband; 20 years later, author Truman Capote exploited the scandal in his Esquire short story "La Côte Basque, 1965."

What's inside: a well-researched account of the pair's ill-fated connection, which reportedly spurred Woodward's suicide and led to Capote's disgrace.

Try this next: For more books detailing how famous authors found literary inspiration in murder cases, check out Casey Cep's Furious Hours or Sarah Churchwell's Careless People.



----- How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future
by Maria Ressa; foreword by Amal Clooney

What it is: an inspiring call to action from Philippine journalist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa, who is currently facing prison time for reporting on the Philippines' descent into disinformation and fascism.

Read it for: an inspiring account of speaking truth to power: "You feel the fear; then you bust through it."

Featuring: a foreword from Ressa's attorney, Amal Clooney.



------ Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers
by Emma Smith

What it is: a fast-paced and engaging history of the book that reveals the written word's impact on technology, culture, and politics.

Author alert: Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford and the author of This Is Shakespeare.

What's in a name? The title of this book comes from the Stephen King quote: "Books are a uniquely portable magic."



------ Tutankhamun's Trumpet: Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects from the Boy King's Tomb
by Toby Wilkinson

What it is: a lively history of daily life in ancient Egypt, told via 100 artifacts excavated from King Tutankhamun's tomb.

What's inside: shaving tools, jewelry, artwork, weapons, sandals, the eponymous trumpet, and more.

Book buzz: Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson's "immersive" (Publishers Weekly) and "generously illustrated" (Kirkus Reviews) history was published to mark the 100th anniversary of the tomb's discovery.



----- Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope, and Fallout of the 1921...
by R.J. Young

What it's about: the history and legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Tulsa, OK.

Author alert: FOX sports analyst and Tulsa native R.J. Young (Let It Bang) blends evocative history with impassioned personal reflections in this well-researched reckoning of systemic racism in America.

Try this next: For another compelling book exploring a pivotal event in Black history, check out Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth.

----- Fairyland : A Memoir of My Father
Abbott, Alysia
A beautiful, vibrant memoir about growing up motherless in 1970s and ��80s San Francisco with an openly gay father. Reconstructing their life together from a remarkable cache of her father’s journals, letters, and writings, Alysia Abbott gives us an unforgettable portrait of a tumultuous, historic time in San Francisco as well as an exquisitely moving account of a father’s legacy and a daughter’s love.


----- Prague Winter : A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
Albright, Madeleine Korbel
From former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright comes a moving and thoughtful memoir of her formative years in Czechoslovakia during the tumult of Nazi occupation, World War II, fascism, and the onset of the Cold War. Publisher's description.


----- The Light of the World : A Memoir
Alexander, Elizabeth
In The Light of the World, Elizabeth Alexander finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband. Channeling her poetic sensibilities into a rich, lucid price, Alexander tells a love story that is, itself, a story of loss. As she reflects on the beauty of her married life, the trauma resulting from her husband's death, and the solace found in caring for her two teenage sons, Alexander universalizes a very personal quest for meaning and acceptance in the wake of loss.


----- Somewhere Towards the End
Athill, Diana
Athill reflects candidly, and sometimes with great humor, on the condition of being old—the losses and occasionally the gains that age brings, the wisdom and fortitude required to face death.


----- A Place to Stand : The Making of a Poet
Baca, Jimmy Santiago
It is said that the boy is father to the man, but in the case of Jimmy Santiago Baca, a childhood marked by abandonment, violence, and drugs remarkably produced one of our generation's most acclaimed poets. Now, the New Mexico native makes his first foray into the realm of narrative nonfiction in this graphic and affecting memoir that recalls a life of constant tragedy.

Ultimately, Baca is able to look back on his life and family with forgiveness. His increasing awareness that his life isn't the one he would have chosen, but is the one that made him who he is, is a moving lesson for us all.


----- Tomboy Bride : One Woman's Personal Account of Life in Mining Camps of the West
Backus, Harriet Fish
It is a woman named Hattie's personal account of life in the mining camps of the American West, beginning with her marriage to George and concluding in 1964 when George died, literally in her arms. Tomboy Bride is divided into four parts: The San Juans; Britannia Beach; The Heart of Idaho; and Leadville, City in the Clouds. Tomboy Bride is an engaging from the very start, reading more like a novel than a biography.


------ A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
Bird, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy)
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains is one of the many accounts of Isabella L. Bird's amazing travels and adventures. At the age of twenty-two, in 1854, Isabella left a comfortable life in England for a life of adventurous travel. This book is the account of six months of those travels in 1873, through the rugged terrain of the Colorado Rockies. Based upon her letters to her sister, this account relates the many hardships of the great western frontier in the pioneer days, as well as the awesome beauty of nature she found in the western territories.


------ Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube : Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North
Braverman, Blair
By the time Blair Braverman was eighteen, she had left her home in California, moved to arctic Norway to learn to drive sled dogs, and found work as a tour guide on a glacier in Alaska. Determined to carve out a life as a “tough girl”—a young woman who confronts danger without apology—she slowly developed the strength and resilience the landscape demanded of her. Weaving fast-paced adventure writing and ethnographic journalism with elegantly wrought reflections on identity, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube captures the triumphs and the perils of Braverman’s journey to self-discovery and independence in a landscape that is as beautiful as it is unforgiving.


------A Long Way Home : A Memoir
Brierley, Saroo
An account of the author's inspirational effort to find his India birthplace describes how he was accidentally separated from his family in the mid-1980s, his survival on the streets of Calcutta, his adoption by an Australian family, and his headline-making Google Earth search.


------Red Notice : A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Browder, Bill
A real-life political thriller about an American financier in the Wild East of Russia, the murder of his principled young tax attorney, and his dangerous mission to expose the Kremlin's corruption.


-----I'm Still Here : Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
Brown, Austin Channing
The author's first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, when her parents told her they named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. She grew up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, and has spent her life navigating America's racial divide as a writer, a speaker, and an expert helping organizations practice genuine inclusion. While so many institutions claim to value diversity in their mission statements, many fall short of matching actions to words. Brown highlights how white middle-class evangelicalism has participated in the rise of racial hostility, and encourages the reader to confront apathy and recognize God's ongoing work in the world.


-----The Pretty One : On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love With Me
Brown, Keah
In The Pretty One, Brown gives a contemporary and relatable voice to the disabled—so often portrayed as mute, weak, or isolated. With clear, fresh, and light-hearted prose, these essays explore everything from her relationship with her able-bodied identical twin (called “the pretty one�� by friends) to navigating romance; her deep affinity for all things pop culture—and her disappointment with the media’s distorted view of disability; and her declaration of self-love with the viral hashtag #DisabledAndCute.


-----Eat a Peach : A Memoir
Chang, David
In 2004, David Chang opened a noodle restaurant named Momofuku in Manhattan's East Village, not expecting the business to survive its first year. In 2018, he was the owner and chef of his own restaurant empire, with 15 locations from New York to Australia, the star of his own hit Netflix show and podcast, was named one of the most influential people of the 21st century and had a following of over 1.2 million. In Eat a Peach, Chang opens up about his feelings of paranoia, self-confidence and pulls back the curtain on his struggles, failures and learned lessons. Deeply personal, honest and humble, Chang's story is one of passion and tenacity, against the odds


-----Inferno : A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness
Cho, Catherine
The riveting story of a mother who is separated from her newborn son and husband when committed to an involuntary psychiatric ward in New Jersey after a harrowing bout of postpartum psychosis.


-----The Pact : Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream
Davis, Sampson
Filled with drama, courage, temptation, and, ultimately, triumph, The Pact is the uplifting story of three teenaged boys from broken homes in Newark, New Jersey, who pledged to support one another in realizing their dreams. Despite tremendous difficulties they faced, today two are doctors and one is a dentist.



----The Choice : Embrace the Possible
Eger, Edith Eva
A powerful, moving memoir, and a practical guide to healing, written by Dr. Edie Eger, an eminent psychologist whose own experiences as a Holocaust survivor help her treat patients suffering from traumatic stress disorders.



----- Nine Continents : A Memoir in and Out of China
Guo, Xiaolu
Nine Continents presents a fascinating portrait of China in the eighties and nineties, how the Cultural Revolution shaped families, and how the country's economic ambitions gave rise to great change. It is also a moving testament to the birth of a creative spirit, and of a new generation being raised to become citizens of the world. It confirms Xiaolu Guo as one of world literature's most urgent voices.


----- Crazy Brave : A Memoir
Harjo, Joy
In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo, one of our leading Native American voices, details her journey to becoming a poet. Narrating the complexities of betrayal and love, Crazy Brave is a memoir about family and the breaking apart necessary in finding a voice. Harjo’s tale of a hardscrabble youth, young adulthood, and transformation into an award-winning poet and musician is haunting, unique, and visionary.



----- The Beauty in Breaking : A Memoir
Harper, Michele
A series of connected personal stories drawn from the author's life and work as an ER doctor that explores how we are all broken--physically, emotionally, and psychically--and what we can do to heal ourselves as we try to heal others.


-----Gone : A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung
Kym, Min
At seven years old Min Kym was a prodigy, the youngest ever student at the famed Purcell School of Music. At eleven she won her first international prize. And at twenty-one, she found "the one," the violin that would transform her life: a rare 1696 Stradivarius. Her career soared. She recorded the Brahms concerto and a world tour was planned.


-----The Honey Bus : A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved By Bees
May, Meredith
Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard. That first close encounter was at once terrifying and exhilarating for May, and in that moment she discovered that everything she needed to know about life and family was right before her eyes, in the secret world of bees.


-----Diary of a Young Naturalist
McAnulty, Dara
From sixteen-year-old Dara McAnulty, a globally renowned figure in the youth climate activist movement, comes a memoir about loving the natural world and fighting to save it.


-----Old in Art School : A Memoir of Starting Over
Painter, Nell Irvin
Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school--in her sixties--to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In Old in Art School, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design; finds meaning in the artists she loves, even as she comes to understand how they may be undervalued; and struggles with the unstable balance between the pursuit of art and the inevitable, sometimes painful demands of a life fully lived.

Alias, you offered many inticing titles and write ups for books but it was the last one which touched my heart. Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over--Nell Irvin Painter. I just love the idea of doing this. When we settle i'd like to take classes on US History, having visited so many sites. Good for Painter (it was in her name, right?) for sharing her story as well.

(As an aside, it's neat when two or three other books are mentioned in the write ups. For instance for Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century--Roseanne Montillo, the writer also included Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee--Casey Cep and Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby--Sarah Churchwell. I hadn't heard of Churchwell's book but having it lumped with Cep's, i added it to my TBR. Cep's book was a different look at Harper Lee, btw.)

Thanks for these titles. There are plenty of good choices listed.

madrano wrote: "Alias, you offered many inticing titles and write ups for books but it was the last one which touched my heart. Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over--[author:Nell Irvin Pain..."

That one caught my eye, too. I think I'll put in on my TBR list. I like the idea of, it's never too late.

Exactly. Encouraging, too.

----- Made with Love: Get Hooked with 30 Knitting and Crochet Patterns
by Tom Daley

What it is: an inspiring introduction to knitting and crocheting by accomplished British diver and LGBTQIA activist Tom Daley, who credits the meditative aspects of the crafts with helping him win Olympic gold.

Projects include: Long Scarf, Balaclava, Cable Sweater, Swirl Vest, Stroller Blanket, Tote Bag, Bucket Hat, Cosy Slippers, Shaggy Cushion.

Why you might like it: Daley covers the basics, including explaining yarn labels, how to hold knitting needles, reading a pattern, and more.



------ Ghetto Gastro Black Power Kitchen
by Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, and Lester Walker

What it is: a combination of art, photos, poetry, essays, interviews, and 75 (mostly plant-based) recipes, by a multidisciplinary Bronx-based collective promoting Black excellence.

Recipes include: Black Power Waffle, Chopped Stease, Jade's Palace, Strong Back Stew, Triboro Tres Leches, Green "For the Money" Juice.

For fans of: Bryant Terry's Black Food: Stories, Art, and Essays.



------ Tanya Holland's California Soul: Recipes from a Culinary Journey West
by Tanya Holland

What's inside: more than 80 seasonal recipes that trace the roots of modern California soul food, prepared by an acclaimed chef, restauranteur, author, and media personality.

Don't miss: the fascinating historical details and maker profiles.

Recipes include: Homemade Benne Seed Olive Oil Crackers with Black-Eyed Pea Dip, Honey-Kumquat-Glazed Fresh Ham, Collard Green Tabbouleh, Fried Artichoke Po' Boy, Honey Lavender Chess Pie.



------ Terrain: The Houseplant Book: An Insider's Guide to Cultivating and Collecting...
by Melissa Lowrie and the Terrain plant team

What it is: both a lovely coffee table book and an insightful guide to collecting and growing an assortment of houseplants, including less common ones, presented by Melissa Lowrie and others from the gardening company Terrain.

Chapters include: Small Wonders, Unfussy Friends, Ramblers.

Don't miss: the detailed section on caring for houseplants, the grower profiles, and the resource list.



------- Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files
by Deb Perelman

What it is: the tasty third cookbook from popular Smitten Kitchen blogger and Instagrammer Deb Perelman, who puts the spotlight on dozens of thoroughly tested recipes that readers will make again and again.

Recipes include: Slumped Parmesan Frittata, Bialy Babka, Essential French Onion Soup, Carrot Tarte Tatin, Cozy Chicken and Dumplings, Crispy Oven Pulled Pork, Portobello Hoagie, Strawberry Summer Stack Cake.



-------- My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place
by Meik Wiking

What it is: an inspiring look at making your home and life better using the Danish concept of hygge to create cozy, welcoming spaces, based on the author's research at Copenhagen's Happiness Institute.

What's inside: lovely photos and illustrations, friendly writing, and an assortment of tips, design ideas, checklists, and more.

Did you know? "Some studies suggest we spend around 90 percent of our time indoors."


🍇🍉🍒🍓🍅 Cookbooks You May Have Missed 🍅🍓🍒🍇


----- Cheryl Day's Treasury of Southern Baking
by Cheryl Day

What's inside: Acclaimed Savannah, Georgia baker Cheryl Day delivers mouth-watering recipes that celebrate Southern baking, plus gorgeous photos, Southern baking rules, recommended tools, and fascinating history.

Chapters include: Hot Breads and Crackers, Slow Breads, Gathering Cakes, Pies, Cookies, Grits and Grains, Jams and Preserves, Basics.

Recipes include: Hush Puppies, Cornmeal Griddle Cakes, Savory Chicken Cobbler, Mushroom Hand Pies, Hello Dolly Bars, Strawberry Rhubarb Slab Pie, Pig-Pickin' Cake, Red Velvet Cupcakes.



----- Half Baked Harvest Every Day: Recipes for Balanced, Flexible, Feel-Good Meals
by Tieghan Gerard

What it is: the latest cookbook from bestselling author and blogger Tieghan Gerard that offers 125 "healthy-ish" recipes focusing on tasty dishes using whole foods, plus tips and inspiring color photos.

Recipes include: Sheet Pan French Toast, Chai Orchard Doughnuts, Salmon Cobb Salad with Nutty Green Ranch, Pizza Pasta with Crispy Pepperoni Breadcrumbs, Spicy Shrimp Tacos, Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, Maple Oatmeal Lace Cookies.



------ Treasures of the Mexican Table: Classic Recipes, Local Secrets
by Pati Jinich

What's inside: Inspired by the diversity of dishes in her homeland, Pati Jinich, star of the James Beard Award-winning PBS series Pati's Mexican Table, offers 150 classic regional dishes, and stories to go with them.

Don't miss: the vibrant color photos; the highlighted sections, such as "pillars of the Mexican pantry," "Tomatillos," and more.

Recipes include: Sweet Lime and Chicken Soup, Double-Stacked Shrimp and Cheese Tacos, Oaxacan Oregano Roast Chicken, Rice with Lentils and Caramelized Onions, Classic Creamy Flan.



------ Korean American: Food that Tastes Like Home
by Eric Kim

What it is: a fun, innovative debut cookbook that also discusses family and growing up Korean American in Atlanta, by a talented young New York Times food writer.

Chapters include: TV Dinners, Rice Cuisine, Feasts, Korean Bakery.

Recipes include: Gochugaru Shrimp and Roasted-Seaweed Grits, Kimchi Sandwiches, Perfect White Rice, Sheet-Pan Bibimbap with Roasted Fall Vegetables, Maeuntang, Gochujang Chocolate Lava Cakes.

----- The Double Agent
by William Christie

Series alert: The Double Agent is the sequel to A Single Spy, which first introduced readers to Alexsi Smirnoff, a thief spared the gulag in exchange for working for Soviet intelligence.

This time: Captured by the British, Alexsi's plan to stretch his debrief last until the end of the war is foiled when Churchill sends him back to Germany with a new identity and a much lower profile. Wanted for betraying both the Soviets and the Nazis, Alexsi will have use every bit of his resourcefulness and self-preservation skill to survive.

Is it for you? Alexsi's strongest conviction is the desire to keep himself alive, which might be "a breath of fresh air" (Booklist) to spy fiction fans but might rub others the wrong way.



----- Behind Her Lives
by Briana Cole

The setup: Deven receives a call no one wants -- the police asking her to come identify what might be her sister Kennedy's body.

The twist: the body isn't Kennedy, but Deven's initial relief is soon outweighed by questions. Who is this stranger? Why was she found dead in Kennedy's apartment? And where on earth is Kennedy?

For fans of: Liv Constantine and B.A. Paris.



------ River Woman, River Demon
by Jennifer Givhan

What it's about: Eva Santos Moon has a deep connection with her Chicana heritage and the spiritual practices that go along with it, which she relies on to cope with PTSD-induced blackouts and memory gaps -- a condition that gets even worse when her husband is accused of a murder similar to the one that traumatized Eva in her youth.

Read it for: the well-developed characters, cultural fluency, and pervasive sense of psychological uncertainty.

You might also like: All the Broken Girls by Linda Hurtado Bond; My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa.



------ Shadow Sister
by Lindsay Marcott

What it is: compelling and surprisingly effective combination of gothic thriller tropes and a race against the clock, as photographer Ava Holland's return to her creepy childhood home to explore her past puts her on the radar of a killer who wants to keep their secrets buried.

About the author: Also writing under the names Lindsay Marcotta and Lindsay Graves, Lindsay Marcott is known for the series that began with The Dead Hollywood Moms Society as well as her more recent standalone novels Mrs. Rochester's Ghost and The Producer's Daughter.



------ The Bequest
by Joanna Margaret

What it's about: Grad student Isabel Henley trades Boston for a university in Scotland only to learn that the renowned scholar who was to be her thesis advisor has just died in a hiking accident. When Isabel's only friend at the university gets kidnapped, she sets out on an international journey to discover the truth about both incidents.

Read it for: the informative research and obvious passion that author Joanna Margaret brings to Isabel's area of study, Renaissance art history.

For fans of: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides; Madam by Phoebe Wynne.



------ Anywhere You Run
by Wanda M. Morris

What it is: the atmospheric, intricately plotted story of two sisters fleeing separately from Mississippi after Jim Crow injustices, gendered expectations, and the desire for self-determination make staying home impossible.

How it's told: in chapters that alternate between each sister's perspective as they leave for Cleveland and Washington D.C. respectively.

Reviewers say: Anywhere You Run is a "viscerally frightening novel of the Jim Crow era" and a "stunning, heartbreaking portrayal of being Black in the 1960s U.S. South" (Library Journal).



------ The Confessions of Matthew Strong
by Ousmane K. Power-Greene

Starring: Allie Douglass, a Black philosophy professor researching a wave of disappearances of young Black women; the titular Matthew Strong, a white supremacist who kidnaps Allie and attempts to force her to write his Mein Kampf-like apologia for Southern history.

Is it for you? Unsurprisingly Matthew and his cohorts are deeply creepy, with a lot of the novel's menacing moments taking place in one-on-one interactions between Allie and her kidnapper that may be too uncomfortable for some readers.

Try this next: My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson.



------ The Flock
by J. Todd Scott

What it is: an intricately plotted near future thriller about climate change apocalypse, the doomsday cults that arose in its wake, and the lengths a determined mother will go to in order to protect her daughter from the burdens of her past.

For fans of: the Passage series by Justin Cronin; How to Survive Everything by Ewan Morrison.

Why you might like it: the alternating narrative perspectives, which keep the suspense high; the inclusion of "supplementary" documents throughout, including trial transcripts and contemporary news reports.



------ Malice House
by Megan Shepherd

What it's about: In need of the money, artist Haven Marbury has agreed to illustrate a creepy unpublished manuscript found in her Pulitzer Prize-winning father's home after his death. As the project progresses, Haven begins to learn things about the house, the nearby town, and her own family that undermine everything she once thought was true.

Is it for you? Malice House will probably appeal most to readers who don't mind when the line between thriller and horror gets a little fuzzy.

About the author: Malice House is the adult fiction debut of YA author Megan Shepherd, whose previous work includes the Madman's Daughter series.

What a mixed bag of topics today, Alias. The crafts is more appealing this go 'round. I was particularly drawn to the first, Made with Love: Get Hooked with 30 Knitting and Crochet Patterns--Tom Daley. Those two crafts got my daughter through Covid, with the result that she is now more accomplished than i ever was. (Which isn't saying much, i hasten to add, but i did teach her these two.)

I had an uncle who claimed knitting, and later crocheting, got him to maintain his sobriety for over 30 years. There were a number of small-town Oklahoma publications that wrote articles about him & this craft. We were quite proud.

And this is something worth remembering when reading about crafts. Not only are they creative and rewarding but they offer some people the exact activity they need to regulate their lives.

Thanks, Alias, for the list.

Thank you. :-)

madrano wrote: And this is something worth remembering when reading about crafts. Not only are they creative and rewarding but they offer some people the exact activity they need to regulate their lives.."

So very true.

Books for Adults by Indigenous Authors


----- The White Girl: A Novel
Birch, Tony
Aboriginal, Barbadian, Irish and Afghani heritage

Odette Brown has lived her entire life on the fringes of Deane, a small Australian country town. Dark secrets simmer beneath the surface of Deane--secrets that could explain why Odette's daughter, Lila, left her one-year-old daughter, Sissy, and never came back, or why Sissy has white skin when her family is Aboriginal. For thirteen years, Odette has quietly raised her granddaughter without drawing notice from welfare authorities who remove fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. But the arrival of a new policeman with cruel eyes and a rigid by-the-book attitude throws the Brown women's lives off-kilter. It will take all of Odette's courage and cunning to save Sissy from the authorities, and maybe even lead her to find her daughter. Bolstered by love, smarts, and the strength of their ancestors, Odette and Sissy are an indomitable force, handling threats to their family and their own identities with grace and ingenuity, while never losing hope for themselves and their future.



---- Terra Nullius
Coleman, Claire G.
Noongar

The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace, and to bring the savages into line. Families are torn apart, reeducation is enforced. This rich land will provide for all. This is not Australia as we know it. This is not the Australia of our history.


------ Song of the Exile
Davenport, Kiana
Native Hawaiian

In this epic, original novel in which Hawaii's fierce, sweeping past springs to life, Kiana Davenport, author of the acclaimed Shark Dialogues, draws upon the remarkable stories of her people to create a timeless, passionate tale of love and survival, tragedy and triumph, survival and transcendence. In spellbinding, sensual prose, Song of the Exile follows the fortunes of the Meahuna family--and the odyssey of one resilient man searching for his soul mate after she is torn from his side by the forces of war. From the turbulent years of World War II through Hawaii's complex journey to statehood, this mesmerizing story presents a cast of richly imagined characters who rise up magnificent and forceful, redeemed by the spiritual power and the awesome beauty of their islands.


---- Trickster Academy
Davis, Jenny L.
citizen of the Chickasaw Nation

Trickster Academy is a full-length collection of poems that explore the experience of being Native in Academia -- from land acknowledgement statements to the criteria for tenure and the histories of using Native American remains within Anthropology. Organized around the premise of the Trickster Academy, a university space run by and meant for training "tricksters," this collection moves between the personal dynamics of a two-spirit Indigenous woman in spaces where there are few others, and a "trickster's" critique of those same spaces. But these realities aren't specific only to those in academic positions -- from leaving home, to being the only Indian in the room, to having to deal with the constant pressures to being a 'real Indian,' they are shared experiences of Indians across many different regions, and all of us who live among tricksters.


----- The Night Watchman: A Novel
Erdrich, Louise
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (Anishinaabe)

It is 1953. Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill that is soon to be put before Congress. The US Government calls it an 'emancipation' bill; but it isn't about freedom - it threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land, their very identity. How can he fight this betrayal? Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Pixie - 'Patrice' - Paranteau has no desire to wear herself down on a husband and kids. She works at the factory, earning barely enough to support her mother and brother, let alone her alcoholic father who sometimes returns home to bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to get if she's ever going to get to Minnesota to find her missing sister Vera. In The Night Watchman multi-award winning author Louise Erdrich weaves together a story of past and future generations, of preservation and progress. She grapples with the worst and best impulses of human nature, illuminating the loves and lives, desires and ambitions of her characters with compassion, wit and intelligence.


----- Five Little Indians
Good, Michelle
a descendent of the Battle River Cree and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation

Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn't want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission. Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can't stop running and moves restlessly from job to job -- through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps -- trying to outrun his memories and his addiction.


----- The Only Good Indians: A Novel
Jones, Stephen Graham
Blackfeet Nation

Peter Straub's Ghost Story meets Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies in this American Indian horror story of revenge on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Four American Indian men from the Blackfeet Nation, who were childhood friends, find themselves in a desperate struggle for their lives, against an entity that wants to exact revenge upon them for what they did during an elk hunt ten years earlier by killing them, their families, and friends.


------ Red Paint: An Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk
LaPointe, Sasha taqwšeblu
Coast Salish author from the Nooksack and Upper Skagit Indian tribes

Sasha taqwšeblu LaPointe, a Coast Salish indigenous woman, has always longed for a sense of home. As a child her family moved around frequently, often staying in barely habitable church attics and trailers, dangerous places for young Sasha. As an adolescent determined to escape the poverty and abuse of her childhood in order to build a better future for herself and her people, Sasha throws herself headlong into the world, with little more to guide her than a passion for the thriving punk scene of the Pacific Northwest and a desire to live up to the responsibility of being the namesake of her beloved great-grandmother, a linguist who helped preserve her indigineous language of Lushootseed and one in a long line of powerful ancestors. Exploring what it means to be vulnerable in love and in art while offering an unblinking reckoning with personal traumas as well as the collective historical traumas of colonialism and genocide that continue to haunt native peoples, Red Paint is an intersectional autobiography of lineage, resilience and above all the ability to heal that chronicles Sasha's struggles navigating a collapsing marriage while answering the call to greater purpose.


----- Whereas
Long Soldier, Layli
Oglala Lakota

WHEREAS confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, Layli Long Soldier has created a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations. “I am,�� she writes, “a citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, meaning I am a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation—and in this dual citizenship I must work, I must eat, I must art, I must mother, I must friend, I must listen, I must observe, constantly I must live.�� This strident, plaintive book introduces a major new voice in contemporary literature.


----- The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings for Living Well
Luger, Chelsey
Lakota and Anishinaabe, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, and a descendant of the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux Tribes

A revolutionary wellness guide rooted in Indigenous ancestral knowledge, offering wisdom for spiritual, physical, and emotional wellbeing from Native American wellness activists.


----- Legacy: Trauma, Story, and Indigenous Healing
Methot, Suzanne
Nehiyaw

Exploring intergenerational trauma in Indigenous communities -- and strategies for healing -- with provocative prose and an empathetic approach. Indigenous peoples have shockingly higher rates of addiction, depression, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions than other North Americans. According to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, these are a result of intergenerational trauma: the unresolved terror, anger, fear, and grief created in Indigenous communities by the painful experiences of colonialism, passed down from generation to generation. How are we to turn this desperate tide? With passionate argumentation and chillingly clear prose, author and educator Suzanne Methot uses her own and others' stories to trace the roots of colonial trauma and the mechanisms by which trauma has become intergenerational, and she explores the Indigenous ways of knowing that can lead us toward change.


------ Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land
Momaday, N. Scott
Kiowa

In Earth Keeper: Reflections on an American Land, Momaday reflects on his native ground and its influence on his people. "When I think about my life and the lives of my ancestors, I am inevitably led to the conviction that I, and they, belong to the American land. This is a declaration of belonging. And it is an offering to the earth." he writes. Earth Keeper is a story of attachment, rooted in oral tradition. Momaday recalls stories of his childhood that have been passed down through generations, stories that reveal a profound and sacred connection to the American landscape and a reverence for the natural world. In this moving work, he offers an homage and a warning. Momaday reminds us that the Earth is a sacred place of wonder and beauty; a source of strength and healing that must be protected before it's too late. As he so eloquently yet simply reminds us, we must all be keepers of the Earth.

**** Continued list from prior post





Books for Adults by Indigenous Authors



-----There, There
Orange, Tommy
An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma

Twelve Native Americans came to the Big Oakland Powwow for different reasons. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxedrene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work the powwow and to honor his uncle's memory. Edwin Frank has come to find his true father. Bobby Big Medicine has come to drum the Grand Entry. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather; Orvil has taught himself Indian dance through YouTube videos, and he has come to the powwow to dance in public for the very first time. Tony Loneman is a young Native American boy whose future seems destined to be as bleak as his past, and he has come to the Powwow with darker intentions--intentions that will destroy the lives of everyone in his path. Tommy Orange delivers a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen. A multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people.


------ The Beadworkers
Piatote, Beth H.
Nez Perce from Chief Joseph’s Band and is an enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes

Beth Piatote's luminous debut collection opens with a feast, grounding its stories in the landscapes and lifeworlds of the Native Northwest, exploring the inventive and unforgettable pattern of Native American life in the contemporary world.


------ It Was Never Going to Be Okay
simpson, jaye
a Two-Spirit Oji-Cree person of the Buffalo Clan with roots in Sapotaweyak and Skownan Cree Nation

it was never going to be okay is a collection of poetry and prose exploring the intimacies of understanding intergenerational trauma, Indigeneity, and queerness, while addressing Urban Indigenous Diaspora and breaking down the limitations of sexual understanding as a trans woman. As a way to move from the linear timeline of healing and coming to terms with how trauma does not exist in subsequent happenings, it was never going to be okay tries to breakdown years of silence in their debut collection of poetry: i am five my sisters are saying boy i do not know what the word means but-- i am bruised into knowing it: the blunt b, the hollowness of the o, the blade of y.


------ Split Tooth
Tagaq, Tanya
Canadian Inuk throat singer from Cambridge Bay (Iqaluktuutiaq)

A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us. When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all of this.


------ Night of the Living Rez
Talty, Morgan
pαnawάhpskewi from the Penobscot Indian Nation

Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy. In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty-with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight-breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family's unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's projects the past onto her grandson; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs. A collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, Night of the Living Rez is an unforgettable portrayal of an Indigenous community and marks the arrival of a standout talent in contemporary fiction.


-------Come Home, Indio: A Memoir
Terry, Jim
Ho-Chunk nation of Wisconsin

A brutally honest but charming look at the pain of childhood and the alienation and anxiety of early adulthood. In his memoir, we are invited to walk through the life of the author, Jim Terry, as he struggles to find security and comfort in an often hostile environment. Between the Ho-Chunk community of his Native American family in Wisconsin and his schoolmates in the Chicago suburbs, he tries in vain to fit in and eventually turns to alcohol to provide an escape from increasing loneliness and alienation. Terry also shares with the reader in exquisite detail the process by which he finds hope and gets sober, as well as the powerful experience of finding something to believe in and to belong to at the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance at Standing Rock.


------The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
Treuer, David
an Ojibwe Indian from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota

The received idea of Native American history -- as promulgated by books like Dee Brown's 1970 mega-bestselling Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee -- has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did one hundred fifty Sioux die at the hands of the U. S. Cavalry, but Native civilization did as well. Growing up Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative. Because they did not disappear -- and not despite but rather because of their intense struggles to preserve their language, their traditions, their families, and their very existence -- the story of American Indians since the end of the nineteenth century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes' distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival.


----- When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky
Verble, Margaret
an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation

Louise Erdrich meets Karen Russell in this deliciously strange and daringly original novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble: set in 1926 Nashville, it follows a death-defying young Cherokee horse-diver who, with her companions from the Glendale Park Zoo, must get to the bottom of a mystery that spans centuries.


------ Indian Horse: A Novel
Wagamese, Richard
Wabaseemoong Independent Nations (Ojibwe)

Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when winter approaches, Saul loses everything: his brother, his parents, his beloved grandmother--and then his home itself. Alone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, Saul is surrounded by violence and cruelty. At the urging of a priest, he finds a tentative salvation in hockey. Rising at dawn to practice alone, Saul proves determined and undeniably gifted. His intuition and vision are unmatched. His speed is remarkable. Together they open doors for him: away from the school, into an all-Ojibway amateur circuit, and finally within grasp of a professional career. Yet as Sauls victories mount, so do the indignities and the taunts, the racism and the hatred--the harshness of a world that will never welcome him, tied inexorably to the sport he loves.


------ Winter Counts
Weiden, David Heska Wanbli
enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Nation

Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that's hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil's nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop. They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity. He realizes that being a Native American in the twenty-first century comes at an incredible cost.


-----White Horse
Wurth, Erika T.
Urban Native of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent

White Horse is a gritty, vibrant debut from Erika T. Wurth about an Indigenous woman who must face her past when she discovers a bracelet haunted by her mother's spirit. Some people are haunted in more ways than one. Old denim jackets, ripped jeans, Stephen King novels, and the occasional beer at the White Horse Lounge have defined urban Indian Kari James's life so far. But when her cousin Debby finds an old family bracelet that once belonged to Kari's mother, it inadvertently calls up both her mother's ghost and a monstrous entity, and her willful ignorance about her past is no longer sustainable... Haunted by visions of her mother and hunted by this mysterious creature, Kari must search for what happened to her mother all those years ago. Her father, permanently disabled from a car crash, can't help her. Her Auntie Squeaker seems to know something, but isn't eager to give it all up at once. Debby's anxious to help, but her controlling husband keeps getting in the way. Kari's journey towards a truth long-denied by both her family and law enforcement forces her to confront her dysfunctional relationships, her spiritual beliefs, and her desire for the one thing she's always wanted but could never have.

----- Georgie, All Along
by Kate Clayborn


"When Georgie suddenly loses her job as a personal assistant, she heads home to her parents to regroup. While there, she comes across a teenage diary and uses it to explore her life. This is a sweet, fun novel about a genuine, competent person trying to discover her true self. For fans of The Authenticity Project."

Julie Heckert, Orem Public Library, Orem, UT
NoveList read-alike: Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes



----- All the Dangerous Things
by Stacy Willingham

"One year after Isabelle's son was taken from his bedroom in the middle of the night, the police still have no suspects or any idea of what became of her boy. Even her ex-husband has moved on. The only thing Izzy knows for certain haunts her: because she's a chronic sleepwalker, did she have something to do with her child's disappearance? For fans of Gilly Macmillan and Lisa Jewell."

KC Davis, Fairfield Woods Library, Fairfield, CT
NoveList read-alike: Stay Awake by Megan Goldin



------ Back in a Spell
by Lana Harper

"Witch Nina Blackmoore must decide who she is and what matters most when her rocky date with "normie" Morty Gutierrez results in a magical bond between the two. With solid pacing, tremendous feats of magic, and passionate romance, this third installment of the Thistle Grove series will knock your socks off. For fans of Ann Aguirre."

Shannon Collins, Upper Dublin Public Library, Fort Washington, PA
NoveList read-alike: A Letter to Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass



------ Bad Cree: A Novel
by Jessica Johns

"When Mackenzie's nightmares start to bleed into her waking hours, she knows that she'll need to return to family to get the help she needs. First Nations author Johns creates a unique combination of cryptid terror and family strength in the face of horror and trauma. For readers of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Eden Robinson."

Erin Downey Howerton, Wichita Public Library, Wichita, KS
NoveList read-alike: White Horse by Erika T. Wurth



----- The Bandit Queens: A Novel
by Parini Shroff

"An amazing debut novel about a group of women who are part of a micro-loan community in an Indian village. Everyone thinks Geeta has killed her no-good, rotten, abusive husband, so the other women want her to kill their husbands too. A story full of humor, pathos, and suspense."

Ariel Zeitlin, Montclair Public Library, Montclair, NJ
NoveList read-alike: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithewaite



------ The Duke Gets Even: A Novel
by Joanna Shupe

"The Duke of Lockwood is visiting America to find the perfect bride -- rich and scandal-free. Nellie is a wealthy heiress who purposefully ruined her reputation long ago. She uses her wealth to discreetly distribute contraceptives to women. The chemistry between Nellie and Lockwood is present from page one."

Katie Curry, Guyandotte Branch of Cabell County Public Library, Huntington, WV
NoveList read-alike: Bombshell by Sarah MacLean



------ Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
by Heather Fawcett

"Grumpy professor Emily Wilde wishes that she did not have to "people" while researching the first complete encyclopedia of faeries. However, a handsome rival and some quirky townsfolk conspire to crack open Emily's well-guarded heart. Readers will be enchanted with the Fae and cantankerous narrator found in this fantasy tale, like a cozy version of the Lady Trent series."

Jenna Zarzycki, King County Library System, Covington, WA
NoveList read-alike: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness



------ Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel
by Benjamin Stevenson

"Ernie Cunningham writes books on how to write mystery novels for a living and is part of a family where everyone has killed someone. But the story of how and why is unraveled in the pages, and there's another murderer in the midst. The narration is perfect -- a retrospective that includes lots of misdirection and breaking the fourth wall. A must-read for mystery fans."

Cari Dubiel, Twinsburg Public Library, Twinsburg, OH
NoveList read-alike: Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia



------ Exes and O's
by Amy Lea

"Tara Chen believes one of her ten exes must be her true love, so she enlists new roommate Trevor to help her reconnect with all of them. Cleverly written with all the tropes found in romance novels, but especially second-chance romance. Recommended for anyone wanting a feel good story with a delightful heroine and handsome love interest! For Jayci Lee and Jackie Lau fans."

Elizabeth Qualls, Blackwater Regional Library, Courtland, VA
NoveList read-alike: The Singles Table by Sara Desai



------ The House in the Pines: A Novel
by Ana Reyes

"Maya sees a viral video of a woman in a diner dropping dead while seated across from her boyfriend. Maya knows this man, as years ago her friend also died suddenly in front of him. Reyes keeps readers guessing, creating a wonderfully sinister undertone while enriching the suspense by incorporating elements of Guatemala's history. For fans of Behind Her Eyes."

Blinn Sheffield, Greenwood-Leflore Public Library, Greenwood, MS
NoveList read-alike: The Sundown Motel by Simone St. James


----- Into the planet : my life as a cave diver
Heinerth, Jill, author.
"From one of the world's most renowned cave divers, a firsthand account of exploring the earth's final frontier: the hidden depths of our oceans and the sunken caves inside our planet. More people have died exploring underwater caves than climbing Mount Everest, and we know more about deep space than we do about the depths of our oceans. From one of the top cave divers working today--and one of the very few women in her field--Into the Planet blends science, adventure, and memoir to bring readers face-to-face with the terror and beauty of earth's remaining unknowns and the extremes of human capability. Jill Heinerth--the first person in history to dive deep into an Antarctic iceberg and leader of a team that discovered the ancient watery remains of Mayan civilizations--has descended farther into the inner depths of our planet than any other woman. She takes us into the harrowing split-second decisions that determine whether a diver makes it back to safety, the prejudices that prevent women from pursuing careers underwater, and her endeavor to recover a fallen friend's body from the confines of a cave. But there's beauty beyond the danger of diving, and while Heinerth swims beneath our feet in the lifeblood of our planet, she works with biologists discovering new species, physicists tracking climate change, and hydrogeologists examining our finite freshwater reserves. Written with hair-raising intensity, Into the Planet is the first book to deliver an intimate account of cave diving, transporting readers deep into inner space, where fear must be reconciled and a mission's success balances between knowing one's limits and pushing the envelope of human endurance." --Amazon.


------- Hana Khan carries on
Jalaluddin, Uzma, author.
"Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighborhood of Toronto. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio. If she can just outshine her fellow intern at the city radio station, she may have a chance at landing a job. In the meantime, Hana pours her thoughts and dreams into a podcast, where she forms a lively relationship with one of her listeners"--


-------Demystifying disability : what to know, what to say, and how to be an ally
Ladau, Emily, 1991- author.
"A guide for how to be a thoughtful, informed ally to disabled people, with actionable steps for what to say and do (and what not to do) and how you can help make the world a more accessible place"-


------What it's like to be a bird : from flying to nesting, eating to singing--what birds are doing, and why
Sibley, David, 1961- author, illustrator.
"'Can birds smell?' 'Is this the same cardinal that was at my feeder last year?' 'Do robins "hear" worms?' In [this book], David Sibley answers the most frequently asked questions about the birds we see most often. This special, large-format volume is geared as much to nonbirders as it is to the out-and-out obsessed, covering more than two hundred species and including more than 330 new illustrations by the author"--Publisher marketing.


-----The Black Panther Party : a graphic novel history
Walker, David, 1968- author.
"A bold and fascinating graphic novel history of the Black Panther Party"-


------Young Jane Young : a novel
Zevin, Gabrielle, author.
"Aviva Grossman [is] an ambitious Congressional intern in Florida who makes the life-changing mistake of having an affair with her boss, who is beloved, admired, successful, and very married--and blogging about it. When the affair comes to light, the Congressman doesn't take the fall, but Aviva does, and her life is over before it hardly begins. She becomes a late night talk show punchline; she is slut-shamed, labeled as fat and ugly, and considered a blight on politics in general. How does one go on after this? In Aviva's case, she sees no way out but to change her name and move to a remote town in Maine"--

Alias Reader wrote: "Books for Adults by Indigenous Authors
..."

Thanks for these two posts of books and authors, Alias. I liked reading their tribal affiliations, as well. I can vouch for Five Little Indians--Michelle Good, particularly if a reader is interested in learning about a school where the US Government sent Native children. And the repercussions of same.

I also liked Winter Counts--David Heska Wanbli Weiden, which reflects modern tribal life and crime. I felt the author portrayed genuine characters with real needs and desires.

Many of the books sounded good to me but these are the ones i want to read soon. Trickster Academy, a collection of poetry by Jenny L. Davis is now on my TBR. It will be interesting to see what she does with the "Trickster" theme/idea.

Night of the Living Rez: Stories--Morgan Talty caught my eye for the line, "...two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs." It sounds too true to not be, if that makes sense.

Also, The Beadworkers--Beth Piatote, for its title and hint of same in the writing. Reading about contemporary tribe members is important for folks who tend to think of "Indian" in terms of old westerns. This is a recurring theme at the Museum of the American Indian in D.C.

Alias Reader wrote: " Georgie, All Along
by Kate Clayborn

"When Georgie suddenly loses her job as a personal assistant, she heads home to her parents to regroup. While there, she comes across a teenage diary..."

I wanted to share my pleasure in reading Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver. Jill Heinerth is probably one of the best known cave divers in the world and shares her own developing interest in the work. For me reading about individual dives in certain places (such as for underwater archaeology and Antarctic caves) are thrilling.

The graphic novel The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History is one i hope to read this year. Thanks for the title.

Indeed, thanks for all the titles. There is something for everyone, imo. Happy Reading!

madrano wrote: "Alias Reader wrote: " Georgie, All Along
by Kate Clayborn

"When Georgie suddenly loses her job as a personal assistant, she heads home to her parents to regroup. While there, she comes across a te..."

Thank you for all the book titles and descriptions.

I've had Georgie, All Along on my Amazon Wish List for a few weeks, and I've been intrigued by The House in the Pines. The Only Good Indians sounds interesting as well. I did love Peter Straub's Ghost Story. I love stories with ghosts as long as they're well-written and not silly, which some ghost stories can be. I thought the plot of Ghost Story kind of went off the rails a few times, but I did like it. It was genuinely creepy to me, and I don't find much at all creepy. As far as movies go, I found THE CHANGELING with George C. Scott and THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE kind of unsettling. After I watched the second one, I had to go sit outside in the sun for a while to feel "normal" again. Not much makes me feel that way. Even my horrible gallbladder attack in July didn't really upset me at all or throw me off-center.

Right now I'm looking forward to the release of I Have Some Questions for You - mystery involving a teacher - and Yellowface - about an editor who steals a manuscript. Really looking forward to those.

Thanks again.

Edit: I'm feeling overwhelmed - with books! And I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I went to Amazon to put The Only Good Indians in my cart, and the software recommended The Fisherman to me. It seemed like just the kind of book I'd love. Dark and beautifully written. (I love the books written by David Vann, writer of the darkest books I've ever read, though he didn't write The Fisherman.) In case anyone thinks I'm a dark, morose person, I'm not. I love well-written comedic books, too, but they are few and far between. I find Wodehouse a wonderfully comedic writer, especially his Blandings Castle series. Anyway, I read a few of the reviews for The Fisherman, and I knew I have to read it! Sooner rather than later. There are a number of books about which I feel the same. Oh, dear. I feel like a lottery winner and don't know where to begin bettering my life or the lives of my family.

Kiki, your concluding paragraph says it all. In my own way, i, too have been overs by all the reading possibilities this year. Part is my enthusiasm for the 100 Challenge, as i pulled many books i’ve been wanting to read for years. Those plus new ones—blowing fuses!

madrano wrote: "Kiki, your concluding paragraph says it all. In my own way, i, too have been overs by all the reading possibilities this year. Part is my enthusiasm for the 100 Challenge, as i pulled many books i��..."

I have a lot of older books on my list, too, that I just hadn't gotten around to but are perfect for the challenge.

If only i could read the oldies without adding new ones, i would have a chance to catch up. HA! As if!

madrano wrote: "If only i could read the oldies without adding new ones, i would have a chance to catch up. HA! As if!"

Exactly how I feel, Madrano! LOL

----- Alligator alley : a Joe DeMarco thriller
by Michael Lawson

Joe DeMarco, a fixer for the Speaker of the House, investigates the murder of a DOJ employee in the Florida Everglades with the help of a retired ex-spy in the sixteenth novel of the series following House Standoff.



----- Cold people
by Tom Rob Smith

A mysterious force captures Earth and gives humanity 30 days to move to Antarctica, where they will be allowed to exist and survive in the planet’s most extreme environment in the new novel by the best-selling author of Child 44.



------ All that is mine I carry with me
by William Landay

When the remains of their mother's body are discovered twenty years after she went missing, three siblings must decide whether or not to believe their criminal defense attorney father is guilty of the murder or stand by him.



----- Hiss & Tell
by Rita Mae Brown

When a series of mysterious deaths spoil the Christmas season in Crozet, Virginia, Mary Minor “Harry�� Harristeen and her beloved cats and dogs lend the police a helping paw in this exciting holiday mystery from Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown.



------ Who cries for the lost
by C. S. Harris

Sebastian St. Cyr must confront a savage killer and save his closest friend from the hangman’s noose in this heart-pounding new historical mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of When Blood Lies.



------ The last remains
by Elly Griffiths

When the body of an archeology student, who went missing in 2002, is found during the renovation of a café, Dr. Ruth Galloway and DCI Nelson uncover a tangled web of relationships between the archeology group and the café



------ The way of the bear
by Anne Hillerman

When two suspicious deaths occur in the Bears Ears area, Navajo Tribal Police officers Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito must use all their experience, skill, and intuition to find justice



----- Swamp Story
by Dave Barry

Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times bestselling author and actual Florida Man Dave Barry returns with a Florida caper full of oddballs and more twists and turns than a snake slithering away from a gator.



------ Bad, Bad Seymour Brown
by Susan Isaacs

New York Times bestselling author Susan Isaacs returns to a pair of her readers�� favorite characters, former FBI agent Corie Geller and her retired cop dad, who must solve one of the NYPD’s coldest homicide cases—before the crime’s sole survivor is killed.



------ The Bird Hotel
by Joyce Maynard

After a childhood filled with heartbreak, Irene, a talented artist, finds herself in a small Central American village where she checks into a beautiful but decaying lakefront hotel called La Llorona at the base of a volcano.



------ All the days of summer : a novel
by Nancy Thayer

"A woman's second act on the beautiful island of Nantucket delivers much more than she expected in this hopeful novel by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer.



----- Nonna Maria and the Case of the Stolen Necklace
by Lorenzo Carcaterra

Nonna Maria, "one of the most charming amateur sleuths ever created" (Tess Gerritsen), sets out to clear her goddaughter's name and uncover the checkered past of an unidentifiable victim in this transporting mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lorenzo Carcaterra.

----- The ferryman : a novel
by Justin Cronin

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage comes a riveting novel about a group of survivors on a hidden island utopia-where the truth isn't what it seems.



----- The bride wore white
by Amanda Quick

The moment she removed one long, black glove and touched the rim of the crystal bowl, Madame Ariadne knew the client on the other side of the table intended to murder her.



----- Independence Square : Arkady Renko in Ukraine
by Martin Cruz Smith

Detective Arkaday Renko—“one of the most compelling figures in modern fiction�� (USA TODAY)—risks his life when he heads to Ukraine shortly before the Russian invasion to find an anti-Putin activist who has mysteriously disappeared.



----- The King's Pleasure : A Novel of Henry VIII
by Alison Weir

The New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the private side of the legendary king Henry VIII and his dramatic and brutal reign in this extraordinary historical novel.



----- The quantum solution : an Evan Ryder novel
by Eric Lustbader

Evan Ryder finds herself in a battle arena whose dangers, while less obvious, are greater than anything the world has seen before--the present and future war of weaponized quantum technology.



----- The Lie Maker
by Linwood Barclay

In this twisty, fast-paced thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Find You First and Take Your Breath Away, a man desperately tries to track down his father—who was taken into witness protection years ago—before his enemies can get to him.



------ Blue skies : a novel
by T. Coraghessan Boyle

"From best-selling novelist T. C. Boyle, a satirical yet ultimately moving take on contemporary American life in the glare of climate change"



----- Fourteen days : an unauthorized gathering
by Margaret Eleanor Atwood

At the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdown a group of New York city neighbors gather on the roof to tell stories in a collaborative tale in which each character is written by a different major literary voice. Original.



------ Cross Down
by James Patterson

Alex Cross is gravely injured. Only his partner and friend John Sampson can keep him safe . . . and get justice.



------ The Survivor
by Iris Johansen

Eve Duncan teams up with Riley Smith (A Face to Die For) to go deep in the jungles of Laos to save a rare animal species.



------ The Libyan Diversion
by Joel C. Rosenberg

The world’s most wanted terrorist is dead. Marcus Ryker recommended the drone strike himself. The intelligence was rock-solid. But what if it was wrong?



------- The old lion : a novel of Theodore Roosevelt
by Jeff Shaara

"In one of his most accomplished, compelling novels yet, acclaimed New York Times bestseller Jeff Shaara accomplishes what only the finest historical fiction can do - he brings to life one of the most consequential figures in U.S. history - Theodore Roosevelt - peeling back the many-layered history of the man, and the country he personified.



------ Identity
by Nora Roberts

"The #1 New York Times-bestselling author's terrifying new thriller about one man's ice-cold malice, and one woman's fight to reclaim her life.

------ Màgòdiz
by Gabe Calderón

In a world... where war has wiped out most of the human population, those who remain live under the oppressive rule of the Madjideye and their brutal Enforcers.

Meet: storyteller A'tugwewinu, sole survivor of the Andwánikádjigan people, who mourns her murdered lover, Bèl; firekeeper Shkitagen and his partner, healer Nitawesi, who seek sanctuary; and Riordan Streetking, hunted by Elite Enforcer H-09761.

About the author: novelist and poet Gabe Calderón's work has appeared in the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction.



------ The Stars Undying
by Emery Robin

What happens: To seize the throne from her sister, Altagracia Caviro Patramata, would-be ruler of Szayet, forges an alliance with military commander Matheus Ceirran of the Ceian Empire.

Why you might like it: Full of intrigue, this space opera is the 1st installment of the Empire Without End series, which draws inspiration from the reign of Cleopatra.

For fans of: Kate Elliott's Unconquerable Sun.



------ The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories
by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (editors)

Contains: 22 stories about djinn by an all-star lineup of speculative fiction authors.

Contributors include: Amal El-Mohtar, Neil Gaiman, Saad Z. Hossain, Usman T. Malik, Nnedi Okorafor, K.J. Parker, Sami Shah, Kamila Shamsie, and Neon Yang.

You might also like: Usman T. Malik's Midnight Doorways, Ayesha Muzaffar's Jinnistan, or Saad Z. Hossain's Djinn City.


------ A Fire Endless
by Rebecca Ross

What it is: the sequel to A River Enchanted and the conclusion to the Elements of Cadence duology.

Read it for: well-drawn characters, both familiar and new; a magical island setting inspired by Scotland; and an inventive twist on Celtic folklore.

You might also like: Freda Warrington's Aetherial Tales series, Charles de Lint's Jack of Kinrowan novels.
Series Starters



------ Age of Ash
by Daniel Abraham

What it's about: In the ancient city of Kithamar, street thief Alys searches for her brother's murderer.

Read it for: sympathetic characters, immersive world-building, and a slowly unfurling mystery.

Series alert: Age of Ash marks the opening installment of the Kithamar series, which continues with Blade of Dream.


------ The Blood Trials
by N.E. Davenport

What happens: Determined to avenge her grandfather's assassination at the hands of the Republic of Mareen's ruling Tribunal, Black warrior-in-training Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials, a brutal initiation rite with a very low survival rate.

Is it for you? Blood and gore abound in this opening installment of the Blood Gift duology, which concludes with the forthcoming The Blood Gift.

For fans of: the strong-willed fighters and blood-soaked vengeance quests of Pierce Brown's Red Rising saga or Evan Winter's The Burning series.



------ Ice Planet Barbarians
by Ruby Dixon

Starring: Florida woman Georgie Carruthers, who escapes her alien captors -- only to be claimed by Vektal, a blue-skinned alien from the ice planet "Not-Hoth."

Book buzz: Originally self-published, this steamy BookTok fan favorite (the 1st novel in a 20-volume series) is now available in print.

You might also like: Cheryl Brooks' Cat Star Planet series; Ann Aguirre's Galactic Love series.



------ The Outside
by Ada Hoffman

Starring: Dr. Yasira Shien, branded a heretic by the Gods after the reactor she invented warps reality and destroys a space station.

Why you might like it: This trilogy opener, which blends space opera and cosmic horror, introduces an autistic heroine and takes place in a universe ruled by superintelligent AI and their post-human angels.

For fans of: Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire series, beginning with Ninefox Gambit.



------- Northern Wrath
by Thilde Kold Holdt

What it is: the opening installment of the Hanged God trilogy, a
historical grimdark fantasy inspired by Norse mythology.

Read it for: a well-drawn ensemble cast; a detailed Viking Age setting; fiery, gore-drenched raids and battles; and a slow but steady march towards Ragnarok.

For fans of: John Gwynne's Bloodsworn saga.



------ Shards of Earth
by Adrian Tchaikovsky

What it's about: A century after the alien Architects destroy Earth, genetically modified supersoldier Idris Telemmier joins the crew of the salvage ship Vulture God and discovers a derelict craft containing some dangerous and in-demand cargo.

Series alert: Shards of Earth kicks off the Final Architecture series, which continues with Eyes of the Void and the forthcoming Lords of Uncreation.

Book buzz: This "dazzlingly suspenseful space opera" (Publishers Weekly) won the 2022 BSFA Award for Best Novel.

Thank you, Alias

You're welcome !

So very many choices, Alias. I see that Elly Griffiths's has a new addition to her archeological series, The Last Remains: A Mystery. I fear i'm somewhat behind with these. Fear? Not really, it means i can have a respite of reading just these books!

The lists you shared are full of temptations. It's nice to see a mix of "new & old" authors with fresh books available. Thank you for sharing with us.

----- Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon
by Kate Andersen Brower

What it is: the first authorized biography of silver screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, written by the bestselling author of The Residence.

Why you might like it: As nuanced as it is gossipy, this well-researched portrait captures Taylor's indomitable spirit and legacy "like one of her own epic screen adventures" (Booklist).

What's inside: letters, diary entries, photographs, previously unseen interview transcripts, and interviews with 250 loved ones and colleagues.



----- Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat & Family
by Rabia Chaudry

What it's about: attorney and Undisclosed podcast host Rabia Chaudry's fraught relationship with food and her body, spurred by her Pakistani Muslim family's immigration to America shortly after her birth.

Read it for: Chaudry's candid, hard-fought journey toward self-love, peppered with wry musings on fad diets, workout woes, family expectations, and the limitations of fat acceptance.

Featuring: mouthwatering recipes for chaat, ghee, roti, and more.



------ The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's...
by Egil "Bud" Krogh and Matthew Krogh

What it's about: After the Pentagon Papers leaked in 1971, White House staffer Egil Krogh was named co-director of President Nixon's Special Investigations Unit (known as "the Plumbers"), and was tasked with preventing further leaks.

What happened next: Krogh was imprisoned for his role in the Watergate scandal; here, along with his son Matthew, he pens an earnest confessional of accountability and redemption.

TV buzz: A miniseries adaptation of The White House Plumbers is set to debut on HBO this year.



------- Novelist as a Vocation
by Haruki Murakami

What it is: beloved novelist Haruki Murakami's (IQ84) engaging guide to the craft of writing.

What's inside: 11 conversational and self-deprecating essays revealing the author's origins as a writer, creative process, and sources of motivation and inspiration.

Book buzz: Novelist as a Vocation was named a Most Anticipated Book by Esquire, LitHub, The New York Observer, and Vulture.



**** 🚢✈️🧳Focus on: Travel Memoirs 🧳✈️🚢


----- Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States
by Samantha Allen

What it's about: trans reporter Samantha Allen's 2017 road trip spent exploring queer communities in conservative parts of the United States.

Places visited: bathroom bill protests in Texas; a youth center in Provo, UT; a drag bar in Jackson, MS; the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington, IN, and more.

Reviewers say: Allen's Lambda Literary Award finalist "is a soothing and motivating balm" (Library Journal).



----- Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land
by Noé Álvarez

What it is: a lyrical memoir by the son of Mexican immigrants that chronicles his working-class Washington State upbringing and his 2004 participation in the four-month, 6,000-mile Indigenous people's Peace and Dignity Journey, a relay-style run from Canada to South America.

What's inside: dangers (a mountain lion, unfriendly motorists, injuries); tensions between the runners; gatherings with Native American and First Nations groups; thoughtful musings about running and place.



----- Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of...
by Bill Buford

What it's about: New Yorker writer Bill Buford worked in the kitchen at Washington, D.C.'s famed Citronelle restaurant to learn about French cooking before moving to Lyon in 2008 with his wife and three-year-old twins to really dig into the subject, and stayed for almost five years.

Who it's for: readers who appreciate haute cuisine, stories of families abroad, or vibrant foodie travelogues with amiable guides.

About the author: Buford also wrote about living and cooking in Italy in 2006's Heat.



----- To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia and a Quest for a Life...
by Jedidiah Jenkins

What it is: a thought-provoking and inspirational memoir of Jedidiah Jenkins' 14,000-mile bike trip, which he took shortly after his 30th birthday.

What's inside: big-picture reflections on family, faith, and sexuality.

For fans of: 1979 travel classic A Walk Across America, written by Jenkins' father, Peter Jenkins.



----- Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots
by Morgan Jerkins

What it's about: Bestselling author Morgan Jerkins, who lives in New York and was raised in New Jersey, traveled to Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and California for insight as she thoughtfully explored how the Great Migration affected families, especially her own.

Further reading: For more on the Great Migration, pick up Isabel Wilkerson's award-winning history The Warmth of Other Suns; for another book combining family memoir, travelogue, and modern Black history, try Candacy Taylor's Overground Railroad.



------ Winter Pasture: One Woman's Journey with China's Kazakh Herders
by Li Juan

What it is: an award-winning memoir that combines nature and travel writing; an eye-opening look at a disappearing way of life; the lyrical English-language debut of a Chinese journalist.

The starting point: Though Li Juan had trouble finding a nomadic group who would take an unmarried 30-something Han Chinese woman along on their winter migration, a small Kazakh family of herders agreed.

What happened: Working with the father, mother, and teen daughter, Juan built a home using manure, gathered snow for water, endured nights with temps below zero, and took care of camel, sheep, and cattle.

Thank you, Alias.

I loved Elizabeth Taylor, so beautiful. I might read that one.

Nice list, Alias. Thank you.

Novelist as a Vocation--Haruki Murakami tickles my fancy. It would be interesting to read these essays. I like the maze cover, too.