Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’m ending the month of May (tra-lah!) with one last double dose of new releases to check out. I hope everyone had a good week (I have slept!) and something to look forward to in the upcoming weekend. I’m going to make it my business to sit outside in the shade and read a little in the fresh air. Here’s hoping the weather cooperates. Stay safe out there, space pirates, and I’ll see you on Tuesday — in June!
Make this your most bookish summer yet with personalized reading recommendations from Tailored Book Recommendations! Our bibliologists (aka professional book nerds) are standing by to help you find your next favorite read. Get your recommendations via email, or opt to receive hardcovers or paperbacks delivered right to your door. And with quarterly or annual plans available, TBR has something for every budget. Get started today from just $18!
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
Ahab Quote Hat by StitchesbecrazyGifts
Look, I’m just saying that one of our books this week has no small amount of Moby Dick energy, and this is an absolutely classic line that I’m sure anyone who has ever fished in real life or in a video game feels in the marrow of their bones. $20
New Releases
From the Belly by Emmett Nahil
Isaiah is an ordinary sailor on an ordinary whaling vessel…until the Merciful makes a most extraordinary catch: a massive whale with a living man in its stomach. The man is given into Isaiah’s care, at which point things begin to go strange, with accidents and deaths befalling the ship and prophetic dreams plaguing Isaiah’s nights. The truth soon becomes clear: the Merciful is trapped in a cycle of punishment for its sins against the sea, and Isaiah must choose the fate of both his heart and his ship.
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
Gav wakes up in an evil wizard’s workshop with no eyebrows and no idea who he is…until he, unfortunately, realizes that he is the evil wizard, and he has no idea what his evil plan might have been. He buys time by playing along with his own evil plan and tries to keep his skin in one piece, all the while learning who Dread Lord Gavrax was and realizing that…wow, he really might not like that person at all.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
This is my last chance to tell you about books that came out in May, so here are two more I’m sneaking in from this last week of the month!
Flawless Girls by Anna-Marie McLemore
The Soler sisters are rebellious hellions, indulged by their grandmother…until she decides they should meet the standards they’re sure to be held to and sends them to Alarie House, a famous finishing school. Isla, the younger sister, gets herself sent home within a day, refusing to play along with the eerie environment of Alarie. But Renata stays, and months later, she returns for a single night as a perfect society girl — a very murderous one — before she vanishes again. It’s up to Isla to return to the school to find out what happened to Renata, and why.
NecroTek by Jonathan Maberry
An experiment gone horribly wrong leaves the residents of Asphodel Station…they’re not sure where; only that it’s clear they’re not in their Jupiter orbit anymore. The monsters that occupy their new location are ancient, eldritch, and now horribly aware that humans exist. Humanity’s one chance is on the alien world of Shadderal, where a ghost named Lost offers a possible solution: a ship that can be piloted only by the dead.
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.