Happy Tuesday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got new releases for you and recommendations of books that are sort of novels, sort of short story collections, and entirely fascinating. My big event for the weekend was seeing Dune Part 2, and I could not be happier. I know the book well enough (and now I want to re-read it again) to pick out a lot of the changes, and I like everything about it. Absolutely gorgeous, cannot wait to see it again. I hope everyone else had an awesome weekend! Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Friday!
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Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here are two places to start: Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which provides medical and humanitarian relief to children in the Middle East regardless of nationality, religion, or political affiliation; and Ernesto’s Sanctuary, a cat sanctuary and animal rescue in Syria that is near and dear to my heart.
Bookish Goods
Leather Bookmarks by LucasRuthHandmade
The Canopy Keepers got me thinking about forest-related stuff, and in my wanderings, I found these gorgeous nature-themed leather bookmarks. Sadly, no sequoia pattern, but they have a nice mountain, and hopefully, by now, you know how I feel about mountains. $11
New Releases
Small Gods of Calamity by Sam Kyung Yoo
The Jong-ro Police Department has seen a spike in suicides lately, and all it can really do is give an institutional shrug. But Kim Han-gil is Seoul’s only spirit detective, and he can see the truth behind these occurrences — it’s a parasitic, soul-eating spirit worm in a feeding frenzy, and he will do anything to end these tragedies, up to and including teaming up with the man he holds responsible for his own, personal tragedy.
The Canopy Keepers by Veronica G. Henry
Syrah Carthan is the first female fire chief of Sequoia National Park, and she expected certain things: sexism, red tape, and unsettling reminders of personal tragedy. The park is, after all, the place where a forest fire killed her parents and her brother disappeared, decades ago. She did not expect to find a secret society bound into the forest’s roots, operating underground since the beginning of time, nor to be drawn into the conflict between its factions as the benevolent Keeper squares off against an undoer who would see humanity punished for its ravaging of the earth.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Island Rule is a new release this week, which is a book of interconnected short stories. That inspired me to pull up two other books that I love with a similar structure of short stories that interlink and inform each other to create a greater narrative.
Island Rule by Katie M. Flynn
This collection is twelve interconnected stories that blend people, place, and reality into a radiant whole. It includes a mother who turns into a literal monster and a failed reality TV show star who turns out to be a world savior.
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Melting permafrost in the Arctic unleashes an ancient plague carried by the archaeologists who have come to the Batagaika Crater. The illness sweeps the globe and forces human society to change and rethink its relationship with death, tragedy, and the future.
I’m Waiting for You and Other Stories by Kim Bo-Young, translated by Sophie Dowman and Sung Ryu
Four stories set in two different worlds, yet interconnected to make a whole. Two of the stories follow a pair of lovers on missions of interstellar exploration, trying to time their return to Earth to coincide. The other two are about the creators of humanity, the godlike beings for whom all life is merely an extension of will.
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.