Hello, my friends. I hope you are having a wonderful April so far. Here in Maine, the critters and birds are all twitterpated, and everything is green. (Well, not the birds and critters.) I am here to once again tell you about a few books that might strike your fancy. A book that caught my eye this week that I want to read right now is We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda. I will get it just for the title and the cute cover, but I bet it’s a lot of fun inside too. Turning to new releases, today I have a sci-fi novella of a carceral system aboard a spaceship, a runaway bestselling Japanese crime novel based on true events, and a middle grade memoir about growing up with undiagnosed OCD.
As for other new releases, at the top of my list of today’s books that I want to get my hands on are Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings, Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger and Rovina Cai, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie, and My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me by Caleb Carr. (I know this one is going to absolutely destroy me. I’m crying just thinking about it.) You can hear about more of the fabulous books coming out today on this week’s episode of All the Books! Emily and I talked about books we are excited about that are out this week, including You Know What You Did, Immortal Pleasures, and The Band.
Looking to elevate your reading life? Tailored Book Recommendations is here to help with handpicked recommendations. Tell the Bibliologists at Tailored Book Recommendations about what you love and what you don’t. You can get your recommendations via email or receive hardcovers or paperbacks in the mail. And with quarterly or annual plans available, TBR has something for every budget. Plans start at just $18! Subscribe today.
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar
This book is only 126 pages, but like everything Sofia Samatar writes, it’s so wise and compelling. It’s set on a mining ship in space, where a boy has spent his life enslaved in the bowels of the ship as a member of the Chained. His life is changed when he is brought to the ship’s university, where he befriends a professor who has worked her whole career to get out from under the stigma of having been born to the Chained. It’s a look at literal and figurative bonds holding people back in their lives and a society that enables the subjugation of others in favor of their own advancement. Everything Samatar writes is brilliant, and this is no exception. (Content warnings include enslavement, classism, and racism.)
Backlist bump: A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki, Polly Barton (translator)
This crime novel was a bestseller in Japan when it was released in 2017, and is now in English for the first time. And it’s based on a real case! Rika Machida is a journalist who is tired of her job, working in a newsroom with all men, where she is often harassed and overlooked. That is, when her ideas aren’t being stolen. Then the case of a gourmet cook with expensive taste accused of murdering her benefactors catches Rika’s eye. She’s disgusted by how the news and social media talk about Manako Kajii, who is not thought of as conventionally attractive. People wonder how “someone like her” could have attracted these men in the first place. Rika wishes to expose this side of Manako’s story, but Manako has refused all interviews with journalists. But when Rika approaches it from a different angle and instead writes to Manako about food and cooking, she is able to strike up a correspondence. And Rika discovers she has more in common with Manako, an alleged serial killer, than she expected. (CW includes sexism, misogyny, body shaming, fatphobia, disordered eating, loss of a loved one, stalking. violence, injury, murder, and death.)
Puzzled: A Memoir About Growing Up with OCD by Pan Cooke
And for my last pick in this very different trio of new releases: a memoir written (and drawn) for middle graders! When Cooke was young, he experienced a lot of anxiety, and as he got older, his anxious thoughts sometimes made it hard for him to accomplish tasks, make friends, or attend sleepovers. For many years, he worried about almost everything, from basic concerns to wildly improbable outcomes. (It doesn’t help that he doom-scrolls on the internet.) But then he was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. And as he learns about the condition, he begins to find ways to calm his worries and his obtrusive, anxious thoughts. It’s an informative look at things so many kids go through in school, such as bullying and fear of embarrassment. But it’s also an examination of a condition so often overlooked in young people, and how to get help. (CW include OCD/anxiety, disordered eating, and bullying.)
Backlist bump: Jawbreaker by Christina Wyman
This week, I am reading Swift River by Essie Chambers and The Cats of Silver Crescent by Kaela Noel. (That makes three books with cats in the title mentioned in this newsletter!) I finally started watching The Good Lord Bird miniseries, which I have been meaning to do for years since I love the book. (Wait, am I just drawn to books with animals mentioned in the title???) The song stuck in my head this week is “Anthem for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl” by Broken Social Scene. And here is your weekly cat picture: Throwback to these three knuckleheads posing for their indie rock album cover.
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
“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.” —E.B. White