Category: New Books

This is a humorous and heartfelt coming of age memoir about Gao’s life as a Chinese immigrant in Texas. She and her family moved when she was a toddler, and she spent her youth trying to fit in, including changing her name to Laura, and trying to figure out her feelings towards girls. Gao is from Wuhan, which she says most people in America had never heard of until the Covid-19 pandemic. The end of the book covers the rise in anti-Asian violence, which has Gao wondering about her place in America. It’s a sweet and powerful look at trying to discover who she is when so many people are ready to label her. (CW for racism, homophobia.)

Backlist bump: Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

En garde! This is a gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers (which I admit to never having read, but I know they had big floppy hats and poked things with swords). In Lainoff’s exciting version, Tania de Batz is the daughter of a famous former Musketeer. She has Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, which makes her dizzy quite often. All she wants is to stop being treated as ‘weak’ and learn to fight like her father. When he’s mysteriously murdered, Tania carries out his dying wish: to attend L’Académie des Mariées, a finishing school. Finally, she’s taught the art of sword fighting and she’s trained to be a dangerous assassin. When she meets a charming young man who may have the answers to her father’s death, she’ll have to decide how far she’ll go to get them—and who she can trust. (CW for violence, death of a loved one.)

Backlist bump: Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

And last, but not least, Gutowitz puts her immense knowledge of lesbian pop culture down on the page for this commanding collection of essays. It includes a look at how it took a lot longer for lesbians to be represented in mainstream culture than gay men, what it was like for her growing up with hardly any lesbian role models, and a lot of funny experiences she’s had because of her writing and the internet. (Including a visit from the FBI!) It also includes serious events from Gutowitz’s experiences growing up, including her search for her identity and an abusive relationship with a partner. (CW for mentions of bullying, sexism, outing, homophobia, sexual assault, drug abuse, mental illness.)

Backlist bump: We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.: Essays by Samantha Irby

I have been having some recurring health issues and was feeling pretty down this weekend. And then I discovered a galley of this book in my TBR and it brightened my whole day! I am not saying this is the best book of the year, but I am not *not* saying it. It is a freaking delight!

In this wonderful middle grade graphic novel, the planet is in trouble when something starts eating the moon. The culprits: Rats, who live on the dark side of the moon. The government knows that the destruction of the moon needs to be stopped, so it sends the best secret defense that it has: a domestic short hair. Given the name First Cat in Space, he bravely blasts off, prepared to do battle with the rotten rodents. On his journey, he discovers a stowaway, LOZ 4000, a verbose robot who vows to help him with his mission.

The two of them meet the Moon Queen when they land. She tells them it will be a dangerous trip to the dark side of the moon, fraught with peril. But together, they can do anything! There will be giants, monsters, more robots, whales, and yes, pizza. I liked how the Moon Queen insists everything on the moon is different, but it’s all just the same things, but with the word ‘moon’ in front of them. Like moon sand, moon bread, moon shoes… (Except for fruit. Let’s not get ridiculous.) This is hilarious, and delightfully illustrated. Harris has a very Dav Pilkey-like illustration style and it’s so fun. And it’s 360 pages long, so that’s a lot of fun packed into one book! Related: I also recommend Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires.

I am so delighted that We Ride Upon Sticks put Barry on everyone’s radar, because now people will sit up and take notice when she has a new book out. This is her fantastic new novel about a young monk and his most definitely not-a-monk twin brother, who set out on a journey to find the reincarnation of a great lama somewhere in Mongolia. It’s a story of faith and family, and finding one’s purpose. It is such a beautiful, wildly inventive book, and I hope you all love it like I do!

Backlist bump: We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

And this is a fantastic YA historical fantasy novel from the author of Rebel Seoul! It’s a feminist retelling of the classic Korean folktale “The Tale of Shim Cheong.” It’s about a land ravaged by storms that have wiped away villages. To appease the Sea God, the villagers plan to throw the Sea God a bride. But the intended bride is Mina’s brother’s beloved, and when he tries to interfere, Mina offers herself up instead. Under the water, Mina discovers the Sea God is enchanted and joins up with a motley crew of underwater beings to break the spell and save her village. It’s delightful and full of adventure!

Backlist bump: XOXO by Axie Oh

Warriors, and healers, and sorcerers, oh my! Macallister, known for her fun historical fiction, is making her first foray into adult fantasy, and it’s great! This is the first book in what will be the Five Queendoms series. For centuries, peace has existed between the queendoms of the land. But when a decade passes without a girl being born, it throws the world into chaos. Magic and secrets will come to light as the queens struggle to make sense of the Drought of Girls, and fight to hold onto alliances and fend off new threats. It’s an immersive, queer, epic adventure! Plus, people hitting things with swords!!! (CW for violence, murder, childbirth, and death of a loved one.)

Backlist bump: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

Okay, as a World of Warcraft fan, this is definitely in my wheelhouse. This is a super inside baseball look at how the company behind the biggest role-playing game of all time ended up almost shuttering its doors before being rescued by its nemesis.

When Dungeons and Dragons was released it was a huge hit. People bought the books and the kits by the armful, having never experienced anything like it before. But from the very start, TSR, the company behind the game, could seem to make no wise decisions. Through bad deals, mismanagement, and poor use of talent, it slowly, slowly sunk into mountains of debt. And then the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering came out, and D&D sales dropped even more. And just when it looked like TSR would have to shut down, it was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic: The Gathering.

Riggs has written an extremely thorough examination of all the trials and tribulations of TSR, since its inception in 1974 by co-creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It charts everything from the dozens of failed new products and ventures, to the ousting of its creators, to the wild ‘Satanic panic’ years of the game in the early 1980s, and its final death throes in the mid-1990s that strangely involved Buck Rogers.

As I said, it’s quite inside baseball, and isn’t so much about the people involved (Gygax disappears not even a quarter of the way in) as the company and its decisions. And there are some things I wished we learned more about, involving the creators and employers. But of the three controversial figures involved, two have died and the other refuses to talk about it. But I was fascinated by all the ways in which the company seemed to get in its own way, and the hubris of management, who seemed to know nothing about games or even nerds. And I loved learning about the many now-famous writers and artists who got their start working on Dungeons and Dragons. If you love role-playing games, or any kind of games, or even just want an epic nerdpurr, then pick this up!

Listen up, book nerds! This is a delightful dive into the section at the back of books where you can find things: the index! From the thirteenth century to present day, Duncan presents way more history about this unsung resource than you ever imagined possible. If you love books about books like I love books about books, then you’re going to love this. It’s an epic nerdpurr!

Backlist bump: The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston

And this is a powerful YA novel about a young woman in Ghana who steps in to help her family when her mother has a miscarriage. Amerley sacrifices a lot to take a job working for one of her mother’s old school friends, a man whose status is much higher than that of Amerley’s family. When the man’s son rapes her, she must decide if she will speak up. It’s a hard novel to read at times, but it’s important for young people to know that they are not alone and that they have a voice. (CW for miscarriage, physical and sexual assault, and classism.)

Backlist bump: All the Rage by Courtney Summers

And last, but not least, the first entry in a new adult fantasy series! This is influenced by Scottish folktales, and is about two childhood enemies who band together to discover why young girls are going missing from their clan. Jack and Adaira are in their twenties now and willing to put their differences aside to solve the mystery. This book has magic, adventure, and some sexy times. I also really enjoyed the side characters Torin and Sidra. (CW for violence, physical harm, kidnapping, miscarriage, loss of child, and loss of parent.)

Backlist bump: The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Holy cats! Or more like unholy rabbits! This was not something I knew I needed until I found out it existed. I fell in love with the middle grade novel version of this by James and Deborah Howe when I was a kid, and have read it and the sequels a few times since. (If you’ve never read Bunnicula, you should do it right now. I’ll wait here.)

The illustrations in this book are so adorable, and this version adds a more playful feel to the story. It’s about the Monroe family and their pets, Harold the dog and Chester the cat. Harold and Chester are perfectly happy with the way things are, but then the Monroes bring home a toothy bunny and things start to get weird. Someone is draining the vegetables in the fridge, and Harold and Chester suspect Bunnicula, who sleeps all day, just like a vampire. The duo are determined to clue the Monroes in on their new furry fanged friend’s habits and restore order to the home—and the fridge.

It’s really fun to see all the characters as you read the story. I loved Bunnicula’s pointy Bela Lugosi hairstyle. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for anything Bunnicula. I bought the fuzzy 40th anniversary edition, and hope to one day see the television series. And I will forever be sad that Deborah Howe died just before Bunnicula was originally released, so she never got to see just how many millions of us love it to pieces. 💔

This is an excellent debut YA novel, and an important one. It’s about three young Black Muslim women who strike up a friendship after a terrorist attack causes more anti-Muslim sentiments. When one of them starts an online journal, You Truly Assumed, to voice her frustrations at the racism and violence directed at Muslims, she meets two more young Muslim women. Together they work to educate, to find a safe community, and to push back against the hate.

Backlist bump: A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

And who doesn’t want an excellent, creepy, middle grade horror-mystery book??? (*Chandler Bing voice* Could I use any more adjectives?) I would have been first in line for this one when I was a kid. When James and his family move from Texas to Oregon, he has no idea what to expect. But receiving threatening letters from ‘The Keeper’ looking for ‘young blood’ was certainly not something he’d ever imagined. Now James must find out who is behind the scary letters before he becomes another of his neighborhood’s missing children. Sound creepy? Well, hold on to your butts, because it’s based on a TRUE STORY. 😳

Backlist bump: The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown

Kat Sanchez is living the perfect life on Instagram. She’s 21, beautiful, and has tons of friends. But it’s all a lie. Kat is actually a 17-year-old bisexual high school student living what she feels is an uneventful existence in California. She is using stolen photos to portray her fabulous online life. Then she meets Elena online, and their friendship turns into IRL texting. Kat doesn’t want to ruin what they have by telling Elena the truth about who she is. But it looks like she’ll have no choice when the actual person in her Instagram photos finds out Kat is impersonating her. This is a great YA novel about authenticity and the pressures of online life.

Backlist bump: Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado

Holy cats, I don’t even know where to start with this book. It’s set in two versions of New Orleans. One is a city where the dead walk the earth (and drive taxis), and ghosts appear out of thin air to serenade the citizens. There’s also graffiti that hangs in the air, trolleys that drive across the sky, and a young girl with superhuman strength. Basically, this version is full of magic and spirits.

In this version, young Perilous Graves and his sister, Brendy, discover only they can help save their city from a wraith who has stolen nine songs and loosed evil on the city. They will discover their own powers, passed down in their family, as they help the girl across the street save the day.

BUT WAIT. There’s more. There’s a whole other story involving a trans man named Casey, and his artist cousin Jaylon. They live in the version of New Orleans that we know, except some of the other New Orleans is starting to bleed through. And it’s up to Casey to figure it all out if he wants to see Jaylon again.

This book is chock full of music, mayhem, ghosts, and imagination! I thought it was fantastic. That said, I do feel like it’s wildly ambitious, almost to a fault. Readers are thrown into the “other” city with no explanation of the way things work, and it’s a bit disorienting at first. There is so much going on in this novel, and dozens of characters to keep track of, but if you put in the work, you’ll find it’s a rewarding ride. (CW for violence, death, and racism.)

Give yourself a thrill this week with this fun novel by veteran mystery author Lisa Lutz! (I can’t believe it has been 15 years since The Spellman Files came out.) This standalone stars BFFs Owen and Luna. For years, people have wondered if they were really just friends, even after Owen gets married. But there are secrets keeping them together. An unexplained death during college, and now the murder of Owen’s wife. Did one of them kill her? And who is going to spill their long-buried secrets first? (CW for violence and murder.)

Backlist bump: The Passenger by Lisa Lutz

And if you have heard us raving about June Hur here at Book Riot and still haven’t picked up one of her books, now is the time to fix that! She writes wildly compelling YA historical mysteries! This one is set in Joseon, Korea, in 1758. Eighteen-year-old Hyeon is a palace nurse working to make a name for herself to win her father’s approval. But when someone murders four women on palace grounds, and Hyeon’s mentor is suspected, she must work with a young police inspector to uncover the truth. (CW for sexism, violence, and murder.)

Backlist bump: Silence of Bones by June Hur

Who likes high fantasy??? *raises hands and feet* *falls down* Then you definitely need to add Braffet’s Barrier Lands series to your TBR! This is the sequel, so I won’t give anything away, but I will tell you that the first one is about an orphaned girl who discovers she has a hidden power. These have magic, they have danger, they have royalty! And if that doesn’t do it for you, I’ll tell you that it was Erin Morgenstern’s favorite book of 2020! Braffet’s novels before this are excellent, and I could not have been more excited when she turned her attention to fantasy.

Backlist bump: The Unwilling by Kelly Braffet

From the author of Rock, Paper, Scissors comes this wild homage to And Then There Were None! Daisy and her family have reunited for Nana’s 80th birthday party. It’s held at Nan’s secluded island estate, where the high tide cuts them off from the mainland for eight hours a day. Which is bad, because there’s also a murderer at the party…

Daisy and her family have not always gotten along, but they have put their differences aside for Nana. But unfortunately, Nana is found dead at the stroke of midnight. An hour later, another family member dies. And another, and another… Who is behind the killings and who will be left when the causeway is clear in the morning?

That’s all I can tell you about this book, because the less you know, the better. But I will just say “HOLY CATS, THIS WAS BANANAPANTS.” It’s super creepy and really fun, and also unpredictable, which is always something I appreciate in a thriller. So many of them are so easy to figure out. Pick Daisy Darker up in August and let the games begin! (CW for violence and murder.)

This is slice-of-life story about Joan, an Asian American doctor who thinks she has her life under control. She fulfilled her Chinese immigrant parents’ wishes and became a doctor, and she’s very successful. But when her father dies and her mother returns home, it unleashes feelings she’s been keeping inside about her family, her profession, and her place in the world. And then she must deal with the emergence of COVID-19 at the hospital. Joan is Okay is a funny, heartfelt novel about identity, work, and family. I am a big fan of Wang’s writing, it feels very personal, but also quite clinical. I mean that in a good way! It’s very sharp and precise and cold, like it cuts you and you don’t even know it until later. (CW for illness, death of a family member, sexism, and racism.)

Backlist bump: Chemistry by Weike Wang

This is the second book in the Seven Devils duology! I loved the first one. It’s about Eris, the heir to an empire, who fakes her death to escape her family’s legacy. But then she’s recruited to an organization opposed to the empire, the Novantaen Resistance. Her first assignment? Infiltrate a spaceship full of dangerous cargo and report back. But Eris is met with resistance from her own team, as well as faces danger around every corner. Can she manage to complete her mission and deliver the important information before the new heir to the empire destroys the existing one? Secret royalty + badass rebels + space = F-U-N.

Backlist bump: Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

And this is the final book in Okorafor’s highly acclaimed Nsibidi Scripts YA trilogy. The first book Akata Witch introduces us to Sunny. Sunny is a 12-year-old American girl living in Nigeria. She never feels like she fits in, because she is not from Nigeria and because she has to stay out of the sun, because she has albinism. But things change when Sunny discovers she has magical powers. Suddenly, people are very interested in her. But can she help the other magical students in her area capture the magical criminal plaguing their town? This is an inventive, fun series, which continues with Akata Warrior, which I also loved. I hope to read this last one very soon!

Backlist bump: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Nell Young is a cartographer (someone who makes maps) just like her father. They used to work together at a museum until they had a falling out over a map Nell discovered in her father’s office. She thought it was a rare map of great significance, her father said it was nothing. When she continued to pursue her interest in the map, they had a huge fight and she got fired. So Nell has been estranged for years from her father, who raised her after her mother died when she was a baby.

Then she gets the call that her father has died. Shocked, she visits his office and discovers he still has that map hanging around, Without her father around to stop her, Nell digs deeper into the map. What she finds changes everything she knows about her father, and herself. The map leads her to a group of cartographers from decades ago, and a dangerous villain who has been hunting down every copy of the strange map and destroying them—even if it means leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Determined to discover the map’s origin and find out just where it leads, Nell sets out on an adventure that just might be her last!

I loved this delightful speculative mystery! I think it’s a good comp for people who love the mystery of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. The Cartographers has murder and violence, sure, but it somehow still gives off this wholesome vibe. I was left feeling that the book was really nice, and I was utterly charmed. And the reveals are so fun! (I also recommend reading The Book of M by Peng Shepherd while you wait for this one.) (CW for infidelity, violence, murder, and death of a loved one.)

Get your tissues ready: This is a gorgeous, heart-squeezing story of motherhood, family, and faith, When Harris’s son Tophs starts exhibiting symptoms that alarm her, she takes him to the doctor. This begins a long, anxious journey of tests, and waiting, and more questions than answers. Harris describes what it’s like to be a Black woman trying to get help from the medical field, which is historically more difficult for marginalized communities, as well as her strong faith that helped her as she worried through the unknown. It’s a beautiful story of a mother’s love for her son, and how the ordeal changed her. (CW for child illness and peril, and racism.)

Backlist bump: All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

Okay, all my little story fans, get excited! Because these are fun, feminist stories of women who have had it. From Cassandra and the Trojans to present day, these brilliant and acerbic tales will have you pumping your first in the air. Kirby has created a blazingly original collection that you will be thinking about long after you turned the final page. It’s wacky and wonderful. (CW for mentions of sexism, violence, and assault.)

Backlist bump: Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado

Obviously, you can already tell from the title that this is a very difficult subject to read about. But it’s also an amazing Erin Brockovich-ish story about criminals of means, the world’s largest sex traffickers, who avoided getting caught for years, and how one prosecutor worked tirelessly with a team to finally bring them to justice. Krell does a great job presenting the facts, the setbacks, and the small victories that led to the final triumphs. It’s a fascinating glimpse into people fighting the good fight. If you like reading about real cases involving lawyers and courtrooms, or like hearing about good defeating evil, this is an engrossing read. (CW for sexual assault and exploitation of children and adults.)

Backlist bump: Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

And I predict this novel is going to be one of the big sci-fi books of 2022. It’s perfect for fans of The Martian. It’s set in the future and is the story of Mickey, an “expendable”. So here’s the set up: The Earth is coming apart, and now that space travel is possible, humans are seeking new planets to inhabit. But there are always a variety of unknown dangers, so expendables are used as test subjects to make sure the water is drinkable, the air is breathable, etc. And because scientists have figured out a way to duplicate human consciousness, when an expendable dies, a new version of their body is printed and their consciousness is uploaded to the new version.

So Mickey is aboard a space craft that has reached a new planet far in the galaxy. He volunteered to be an expendable to get off Earth for…reasons. When the book opens, he’s the seventh version of himself, and he’s just had a terrible accident away from base. Assumed dead, his coworkers create a new version when they return from their mission. But Mickey7 isn’t dead, and when he gets back to his room, he discovers Mickey8. Ruh roh.

The immediate problem is that the base is run by a man who thinks the expendables go against nature, so they can’t let him know two exist at once, because he’s looking for any reason to cancel the expendable program. If he finds out about them, he’ll destroy them both and delete Mickey’s consciousness for good. But with only 200 people around, as the Mickeys are existing on half rations and trying to hide, plus a potential new threat creeping up on the base, how long can the two Mickeys keep their existence a secret?

This is a fun and funny story about friendship, human existence, and consciousness. Mickey is very snarky and quite clever, and it was a lot of fun to read this Multiplicity-like adventure story in space.

(CW for violence, prolonged death, suicide)