Hooray, It’s Time for New Books!

Tommy Orange’s 2018 debut novel, There There, was a smash success, amassing many awards and nominations, including ending up a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It’s about the lives of many Native people in America over the last fifty years or so. This novel is related, delivering another devastating and powerful story of Native people in the United States, many related to characters from the first book. It goes back much farther than the first, to the American West during the Civil War and the horrible treatment of Native people by settlers and the country’s young government. It’s based on actual US history and examines the lives of Native people and their fight against the eradication of their people, and the intergenerational trauma passed down through the decades. You don’t need to have read There There to understand what is happening in this book. But if you haven’t read There There yet, I highly recommend starting with that one because why not? Orange is a contemporary literary genius. (This book contains many content warnings, including violence, racism, sexual assault, substance abuse, animal death, and suicide.)

Backlist bump: There There by Tommy Orange

This is a raw, affecting memoir about loss that asks a lot of questions. In 2019, Sloane Crosley’s NYC apartment was burgled while she was out. Many of the pieces of jewelry that were stolen were inherited and had sentimental value. Crosley kept being told she was so lucky that she wasn’t home when it happened. But she didn’t feel lucky, and she wondered why it wasn’t okay for her to grieve the loss of her jewelry. (Hence, ‘grief is for people.’) But not even two weeks later, Crosley’s best friend and former boss died by suicide, linking these two events in her mind. Crosley goes through the emotions after the death of her friend, like anger, blame, grief, and denial, but in telling her story, she also explores many of the things she feels aren’t talked about when someone dies. She wonders why she can find books and support groups for people who lose relatives, children, or significant others but not many for the loss of friends. She becomes fixated on the idea that if she can recover her jewelry, it will bring her best friend back. As she navigates her grief, she is soon faced with a city shut down by the pandemic, forcing everyone to spend time apart, another loss of sorts. Crosley is known for her humorous essay collections and sharp wit, and it is still on display here, but it’s also an honest examination of loss and its individual effects. (Content warnings for grief, trauma, and discussion of suicide throughout.)

Backlist bump: Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley

Before I tell you about this book, you should know that it is a continuation of the events that happened in the first book set in this world, Moon of the Crusted Snow. You can read this on its own, but if you don’t want to know how the first one ended, stop reading right here and pick it up. Otherwise, I am happy to report that this is an awesome follow-up! The first book was about societal collapse after the power goes out everywhere. It didn’t end with warm fuzzies, and now, twelve years after the events in that isolated northern Anishinaabe community, the people living there realize they can no longer get by with what they have. That means going out into an unstable, unknown wilderness and searching a world reclaimed by nature to find resources. A small party of volunteers heads off into the Northern Ontario woods to try to find food like their Indigenous ancestors did. But they learn they are not the only survivors out there in the world, and not everyone they meet has adjusted as well as they have to the apocalypse. It’s another chilling account of violence and survival during events that seem like they could easily happen IRL. (This book has a lot of content warnings, including racism and xenophobia, violence, murder, gore, suicide, loss of a loved one, and animal death.)

Backlist bump: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

This week, I am reading Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet by Samantha Allen and The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez. In non-book news, we’re halfway through the second season of Slow Horses, and it’s excellent. I can see myself reading the books, even after watching the show. (It’s fun to compare books to their adaptations!) The song stuck in my head this week is “How Many Times” by JJ & The Mood because of an iPhone commercial that they run roughly a bazillion times a day on NBA TV. And here is your weekly cat picture: Farrokh, aka Freddie Purrcury, enjoys sleeping on the fridge with his head hanging over the side.

That’s all for this week! I appreciate you more than I can say, friends. Thank you for joining me each Tuesday as I rave about books! I am wishing you all a wonderful rest of your week, whatever situation you find yourself in now. And yay, books! See you next week! – XO, Liberty

“It seems, unfortunately, that nothing can protect you from your own mind, your knowledge, your memories. The harder you fight to keep thoughts out, the harder they pound the battering ram to get in.”—Jacqueline Holland, The God of Endings