Happy Tuesday! I just returned from Print: A Bookstore in Portland (Maine) where I recorded this week’s episode of All the Books live! in! person! with Rebecca. We also ate donuts and looked at books. It was great fun! I have some wonderful books to recommend today and you can hear about several more great titles that we discussed on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about Brother, No One Tells You This, A Gentleman’s Murder, and more.
Sponsored by Doubleday Books
In a dingy office, the door bears the names of A. Kimrean and Z. Kimrean. Private Eyes. Behind the door there is only one desk, one androgynous PI. A.Z., as they are collectively known, are brother and sister. He’s pure misanthropic logic, she’s hedonistic creativity. The Kimreans have been locked in mortal battle since they were in utero…which is tricky because they, very literally, share one single body. This Body’s Not Big Enough for Both of Us is a brilliantly subversive and comic thriller celebrating noir detectives and action movies, that can only come from the mind of Edgar Cantero.
PS – Don’t forget we’re giving away $500 of the year’s best YA fiction and nonfiction so far! Enter here by the end of today, July 31st!
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
This is the story of seven-year-old Chula, who lives a carefree life with her sister in a gated community in Bogotá. But when a young woman from the guerilla-occupied section of the city is hired as her family’s live-in maid, Chula begins to learn about privilege and the encroaching violence, crime, and conflict that is taking place beyond the walls. Set during the height of Pablo Escobar’s reign of crime and inspired by the author’s own experiences, this is a wonderful debut novel.
Backlist bump: Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Descent of Monsters (The Tensorate Series) by JY Yang
The third book in the Tensorate series is here! And it is as wonderful as the first two books. (Actually, as much as I loved the first two, I love this one even MORE.) This time there’s an escaped experiment (MONSTER!), a lot of carnage, and an investigator who must figure out what really happened. I love these wildly imaginative stories so much! And unlike a lot of series, you don’t have to have read the first books to follow the story. (But I HIGHLY recommend them as well.)
Backlist bump: The Black Tides of Heaven (The Tensorate Series) by JY YAng
The Shortest Way Home by Miriam Parker
A charming novel about a woman taking control of her own story. Hannah thought she had her perfect life planned out with her boyfriend, set to begin right after they finish grad school. But then she is offered a marketing job during a visit to her family’s winery – and realizes she kinda wants to take it. Suddenly she’s questioning what it is she thought she wanted from life and forging a new path for herself. The Shortest Way Home is a delightful debut about taking chances and making your own happiness.
Backlist bump: Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave
That’s it for me today – time to get back to reading! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!
Stay rad,
Liberty