Now I’ll admit, I’m usually a hardback girlie. But there’s nothing like reading a floppy paperback sitting around at the park, or lounging by the pool. And, as someone who loves to annotate my books (please forgive me), I can’t help but notice that paperback books are easier to mark up and flag over and over. So today, we’re looking at paperback books! We’ll start out with two books that are new in paperback. Then we’ll jump to some backlist paperback titles. But first, bookish goods!
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Bookish Goods
Book Lover Keychain by DarlingDoeDesignsLLC
Being a book lover really requires the right accessories, and this adorable book keychain is perfect. Look at that tiny mug! $11
New Paperback Releases
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian
Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
Houston journalist Roxanna Asgarian first heard about Jennifer and Sarah Hart when the police ruled their deaths, and the deaths of their six children, as a murder-suicide. Asgarian writes about the broken foster care and adoption system that allowed a white married couple to repeatedly abuse and neglect their adopted Black children.
Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza
National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction
Cristina Rivera Garza’s sister, Liliana, was in college when she was murdered by an ex-boyfriend. Decades later, Cristina goes to Mexico City in search of her sister’s case file. But when the police inform her that Liliana’s case file was lost, she decides to make a file of her own, an act to force the world to bear witness to her sister’s life.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot
It’s been several years since I first read Heart Berries, and I reread it a couple of years ago. So much of this memoir stays with me, and I keep thinking about how incredible it is in its craft and storytelling. Mailhot is from the Seabird Island Band, and the memoir starts with Mailhot in a mental health facility, trying to work through traumatic parts of her past. She takes us back through her memories, weaving in and out, touching moments in her history that she’d rather forget. This memoir is a stunning example of the genre.
Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression by Teresa Wong
In this graphic memoir, author Teresa Wong describes her experience with postpartum depression, and her struggle to find effective treatment for her condition. Having a baby comes with a lot of expectations of how a person should act and feel. There’s a societal expectation that they will be happy, that every discomfort is worth it because you just had a baby. That should just be a wonderful experience across the board, right? But that’s not how it went for Wong. She found herself stuck in a fog of intense depression, making it incredibly difficult for her to find a medical professional who would even acknowledge her condition, let alone work with her to find the appropriate treatment.
That’s it for this week! You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave, over on Instagram @kdwinchester, on TikTok @kendrawinchester, or on my podcast Read Appalachia. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
Happy reading, Friends!
~ Kendra