Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and we’re solidly into the new year now, with the new releases coming fast. I’ve got a double dose for you today — indie picks and large press picks alike! I hope everyone had a most excellent and relaxing weekend and you’re energized for the week because here we go! Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday.
Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge is in its ninth year, with a set of 24 tasks that invite readers to expand their worldview through books. Read one book per task, or do some multi-tasking by counting one book for multiple tasks. It’s all fine! The point of the challenge is to push yourself to expand your horizons. Thank you to Thriftbooks for sponsoring Read Harder 2023.
To find the tasks and subscribe to our newsletter for tips and recommendations, visit Read Harder 2023.
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here’s somewhere to start: NDN Collective and Jane’s Due Process.
Bookish Goods
Night Court-inspired Bookmarks by BellareeCreations
These gorgeous holographic bookmarks are inspired by the Sarah J. Maas book A Court of Thorns and Roses. $10
New Releases
The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai
A spoiled aristocrat named Nehal wishes for nothing more than to go to the newly-opened Weaving Academy, where she can learn to take full control of her powers as a waterweaver. However, thanks to her father’s habit of gambling, she is instead forced to marry a wealthy merchant who is entirely indifferent to her — because he’s in love with a bookseller named Giorgina, who is secretly a powerful and uncontrolled earthweaver.
We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride
At the hospital to be treated for clinical depression, Whimsy meets a boy named Faerry, and they recognize in each other a bone-deep magic. Then when Faerry moves onto her street with his family, they begin to understand that their fates have been intertwined for a long time. And they share one more thing in common: their fear of the forest at the end of Marsh Creek Lane, which whispers to Whimsy and promises Faerry something he cannot define but has long felt is missing.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
New year, new indie and small press books to check out! Here are a couple recent releases that caught my eye.
Extended Stay by Juan Martinez
A rundown Las Vegas hotel, The Alicia, has awakened and beckons to her those who are vulnerable and need to hide secrets. Alvaro has fled from Colombia after his parents were killed in a horrific roadside execution and begun to build a new life in The Alicia, where he lives rent-free and has been recently promoted to management. But then Alvaro notices photos going missing and strange cockroach behavior and discovers that The Alicia is but a small part of an enormous creature that feeds on on both guests and their secrets.
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane
In a parallel United States, criminals are not imprisoned, but rather given second (or third, fourth, fifth…) shadows by the Department of Balance as a reminder of their crime and a warning to anyone who sees them. But the department is rife with corruption and prejudice, and those they assign shadows to are publicly shamed and deprived of their civil rights. Kris is one of these mutli-shadowed people; she’s just lost her wife, and their baby was mysteriously born with a second shadow. With time, she will make a new life for herself and her child.
See you, space pirates. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.