Category: Read This Book

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich.

Content warning: Talk of genocide, alcoholism, sexual abuse/rape, brutality

I’ve not read Louise Erdrich’s entire (extensive!) backlist, but I picked up her newest book recently and I was completely blown away. Set in 1953 on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, this book follows Thomas, a night watchman, and Patrice, a young woman looking for her sister. Thomas guards the local jewel bearing plant at night, where he has plenty of time to correspond with various members of the Chippewa Nation as part of his job as council member. When he learns that Congress wants to revoke their treaties under the guise of setting the people “free” and selling their land out from under them, Thomas is alarmed and knows they must fight it. Patrice works at the plant, but her worries are a bit more personal–she’s scared for her older sister, who moved to Minneapolis and hasn’t contacted her since. Thomas and Patrice’s stories intertwine with others in their community as Thomas looks for a way to fight for their treaties, and Patrice’s eyes are opened to the dangers beyond her world.

All of Erdrich’s books are powerful, but this one especially took my breath away. She does such a brilliant job of setting the scene and she effortlessly contextualized so many historical events within the narrative. The people living on Turtle Mountain in the 1950s aren’t that far removed from the genocide and violence that first arrived on their land in the 19th century, and many of the young characters are survivors of the government schools. The phantoms of the past haunt the characters both literally and figuratively throughout the novel as they figure out how to keep living, even as the federal government wants to wash their hands of them. One thing that never fails to impress me about Erdrich’s writing is how she can write about such atrocities with a perfectly measured magical touch, so that you know exactly what she’s talking about without her ever having to spell it out for you, and as a result you feel what the characters are experiencing rather than simply absorb the facts of countless cruelties. This is a really powerful book that explores the past, but is a good reminder that these struggles aren’t over–they just keep repeating themselves.

Bonus: I listened to the audiobook version, which is narrated by Louise Erdrich herself, and it was a fantastic experience.

Happy reading,

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn!

Content warning: Chronic illness, nothing else that I can recall.

If you’re a Janeite who also likes speculative fiction of the mind-bending variety, this is a must-read for you! Rachel and Liam are two travelers who arrive in London in 1815 with carefully prepared aliases and the seams of their clothing sewn with a small fortune in bank notes. They’re from the future, where the Royal Institute for Special Topics in Physics has discovered time travel and engages missions to the past–not to change history, but to study it. Rachel is a doctor who travels between disaster and war zones, and Liam is a famous stage actor. Their mission is complex, but has the potential to be groundbreaking back home: Befriend Henry Austen, a banker whose business is about to go under, and gain access to his sister, Jane. From there, they intend to steal Jane Austen’s unpublished manuscript, The Watsons.

This is a high-concept premise with a lot of heart. Rachel is our protagonist and narrator, and although this book begins with their arrival in the past, she seamlessly weaves in fascinating glimpses to her troubled home timeline (environmental disaster has brutally changed the landscape, and sentimentality for the past drives big endeavors) in between interesting tidbits about how to pass as a lady of the Regency era. Finding and befriending Jane Austen is a feat equal to any of the plots of her famous novels, with tense drawing room scenes, secret notes, and intriguing alliances behind closed doors. Flynn doesn’t sugarcoat what it was like to live in the early 19th century, but the advantage of a time traveler’s perspective is that Flynn gives the reader fascinating historical context for life in 1815 without being pedantic.

But what makes this book extra special isn’t necessarily the concept of time travel to meet Jane Austen, but the question of what if? Rachel and Liam have the opportunity to influence history, to try and save Jane Austen from an early death, even if it goes against their orders. Their dilemma puts them into an ethical gray area, and has them meditating about what it means to be famous after death, what artists owe the world, and how art endures. I love the journey that this book takes readers on–the destination might be unexpected, but the trip across centuries is memorable!

Bonus: I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Saskia Maarleveld! She switches seamlessly between English, American, and Irish accents within scenes, making it a really fantastic performance!

Happy reading,

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson.

Content warning: Home invasion, some violence–sorry, I don’t remember anything else!

American Spy is one of my favorite books of 2019, and even a full year later I still cannot shut up about this book! It’s about Marie Mitchell, a Black FBI agent working in the 1980s. Her ambitions are high, but her career has stalled out thanks to racism and sexism in her home office, and she’s not really sure what the future holds for her. Then she’s recruited by the CIA for a one-off mission that turns into an ongoing, overseas assignment: spying on Thomas Sankara, president of Burkina Faso, first on his U.S. visit and then in his own country. Marie is cautious, but she takes the job. Thomas is intellectually engaging, charismatic, and sensitive, a born leader despite his tendency towards Communist values. It’s not long before Marie finds herself agreeing with his politics more often than not, and increasingly uneasy about the level of U.S. meddling with foreign affairs…and when violence breaks out, she must act quickly to establish where her loyalties lie.

This is an absolutely stellar spy thriller, and I’m so excited about it because it centers a Black woman–in the ’80s and ’90s, no less! It’s also beautifully written, structured as Marie’s letters to her young children, written in the ’90s as she looks back on her choices to get involved with the mission to spy on Sankara, and the fallout which persists to her present day. There’s also a strong subplot involving Marie’s sister, whose career choices inspired Marie’s journey to the FBI, and whose mysterious death has haunted her for years. This book is intense, but not in the traditional spy thriller way. There aren’t endless shoot-out scenes and high speed car chases, but there are deeply unsettling meetings, mysterious strangers, and shady dealings that force Marie to question her moral compass, the motivations of every one around her, and what it means to be a good person, a good spy, a good mother, and a good American. If you’re looking for a deeply human spy novel, then you cannot go wrong with this book. Bonus: I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated brilliantly by Bahni Turpin, one of my favorite narrators.

Happy reading!
Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is Late to the Party by Kelly Quindlen!

If you’re a regular listener to All the Books!, then you might have heard me gush about this book in our April 21st episode! Maybe it’s because I’ve been in a reading slump, or because I just needed an infusion of something happy, but I really loved Late to the Party! It’s about 17-year-old Codi, who is a queer teen with two amazing best friends Maritza and JaKory, who are bisexual and gay respectively. They’re great friends who genuinely enjoy hanging out, watching movies, and just chilling–but they aren’t partiers, and neither of them have ever been kissed. They’re itching for an epic teen experience, but they don’t know how to go about it, and Codi feels a lot of anxiety about stepping outside of her comfort zone.

But when she shows up late to a party she didn’t even want to attend in the first place, Codi meets a neighbor, Ricky, who turns out to be gay as well. For some reason, they just click and a great friendship is born, but it’s not like Codi’s friendship with JaKory and Maritza. It’s something newer, more exciting. Ricky introduces Codi to his friend group, where Codi finds acceptance and new crush, and they go on to have an epic summer…but Codi doesn’t tell JaKory and Maritza about any of it.

I think what I loved most about this book is that it’s a really deft exploration of friendships and identity, especially when it comes to sexuality and LGBTQ+ issues, without defaulting to a tired coming out narrative. For these teens, coming out isn’t really a huge issue–finding acceptance and connection is what’s important. Quindlen balances a large cast of secondary characters beautifully, and they all felt like real, genuine people that I knew in high school. The plot unfolded so organically, and it actually made me quite a bit nostalgic for high school shenanigans and the rush of first crushes. The friendship angle was also really nuanced, as Quindlen explored how friendships can be both soul-sustaining but also limiting at times. If you’re in the mood for something on the lighter, funnier side, with great LGBTQ+ characters, themes of friendship and identity, then you cannot go wrong with Late to the Party!

Happy reading, and have a great weekend!

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is Passing Strange by Ellen Klages!

Content warning: Domestic abuse, homophobia

Passing Strange is a really excellent SFF novella that begins with an elderly woman settling her affairs in present day, but is largely set in 1940 San Francisco. It follows five women, all queer, who are eking out a living and supporting each other through racial and legal oppression. The book centers around three of these women: Helen is a Chinese immigrant and newly minted lawyer who is barred from working at a firm, so she keeps busy setting up wills and legal documentation to protect women who live together. Haskel is a talented but emotionally guarded artist who makes her money illustrating racy covers of pulp magazines under a male pseudonym. Emily is new to town, making a living by cross-dressing and singing in bars, which is very dangerous in an age where police are all too happy to arrest people for social deviance. When Haskel and Emily fall in love and their romance is revealed, Helen and the rest of the gang must go above and beyond to protect them.

I think this is an excellent (short!) pick for anyone who really likes historical stories and is interested in getting into fantasy. The magical elements are fairly light, but they play an absolutely crucial role to the plot. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’ll just say that it was a twist I didn’t see coming–and when it finally played out, I was thrilled. But the real magic to me was how Klages brought 1940 San Francisco to life in these pages. You can feel the love the author and the characters have for the city, and the scenes feel perfectly designed to showcase the city in all of its excitement and grit, from well-known landmarks to seedier underground bars. This is also an excellent pick if you like books about a sisterhood of women who support and love each other, with a dash of epic romance. It doesn’t end tragically, although the ending might not be what you expect.

Bonus: This is a novella, so if you read it you’ll fulfill one of the Read Harder 2020 challenges! (It’s over 120 pages, but that’s okay!)

Happy reading!
Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is the powerful memoir Know My Name by Chanel Miller.

Content warning: sexual assault, trauma, PTSD, suicide ideation

Many people recognize the name Brock Turner, but fewer know the real name of Emily Doe, the woman that Brock Turner assaulted behind a dumpster at a party on the Stanford University campus. Her name is Chanel Miller, and in this incredible memoir, she shares her story and reclaims her name. She recounts the events of the night that Brock Turner assaulted her, and the immediate effects as she came to terms with what happened and how her life was changed. She takes readers through the confusing, isolating experience of pressing charges, and her harrowing experience in court, and after, when Brock was only sentenced to six months in jail. But it’s so much more than just her side of what happened–it’s also about everything that happened to her in between those moments, her life before the assault, her art, how she processed her assault mentally and emotionally, and how she reclaimed her voice.

“If a victim speaks but no one acknowledges her, does she make a sound?”

Chanel Miller is an incredible writer–articulate, thoughtful, and deeply caring. She was destined to be published, and while my heart breaks to think of what she went through, I am at least glad for her book. She not only puts a real human face to a terrible crime, but she illuminates how difficult it is for many victims to come forward and how arduous it can be to navigate the legal system, even under the best of circumstances. She’s honest about the strain this event put on her and her entire family, but she is adamant about not being seen only as a victim–she’s a sister, friend, ally, artist, and writer as well. Her memoir is a brilliant homage to all of those parts of herself that were erased in the media coverage of her trial, and an inspiring call to action for people to continue to stand up to injustice everywhere. The subject matter isn’t always easy, but you’re in good hands with Chanel, and I would happily read anything she writes from here on out.

Bonus: I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Chanel Miller herself. I HIGHLY recommend this experience!

Happy reading,

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan.

Content warning: child abuse, murder, assault

Last week we received the very welcome news that a new Tana French novel called The Searcher will be hitting shelves this fall, and I couldn’t be more thrilled–I love her atmospheric Irish mysteries. My love of French is what drove me to seek out more Irish mysteries, which is how I discovered Dervla McTiernan’s books! Her mysteries have been helping me ease the wait time in between French’s releases.

The Ruin is McTiernan’s debut novel, and it introduces us to Cormac Reilly, a detective who has relocated from Dublin to Galway to be with his girlfriend, Emma. While Emma has her dream job, Reilly’s work situation is less than ideal–he’s stuck on cold cases, and he can’t figure out why his new coworkers seem to have it in for him. But when a recent suicide death reveals a startling connection to a death and disappearance that Reilly worked as a rookie, his interest is piqued. Especially when the victim’s girlfriend claims he wasn’t suicidal. And then when the victim’s missing sister makes a surprise appearance, everyone is pointing fingers, but only Reilly can get to the truth.

This is a mystery with real presence–the setting and heavy suspicions that follow most of the characters really heighten the tension. Cormac Reilly is a steady, reliable, likable protagonist, even though he’s not without his faults. The book is told mainly through his perspective, but McTiernan also seamlessly slips into the points of view of a handful of other characters surrounding the mystery, giving the reader a wider view of the story. The unraveling of this mystery is also very much dependent on the strengths, pitfalls, and hang ups of the characters investigating, and everyone has their own motivations and secrets. And yet for a mystery that starts with a cold case, much of the action and high stakes are very real and in the present, and McTiernan threw a couple of twists that I certainly didn’t see coming! I definitely recommend this book for Tana French fans, but also Jane Harper fans and to anyone who enjoys character-driven procedurals!

McTiernan has written two other books about Cormac Reilly, but you’ll want to read these books in order! Start with The Ruin, follow up with The Scholar, and then look for The Good Turn. It’s out now in Australia and the UK, but no U.S. release date yet, much to my eternal disappointment. (I’m still crossing my fingers for a fall 2020 release!)

And if you’re looking for one place to stay up to date on the effects of COVID-19 on the book world, we’ve got a story stream for you.

Be safe, and happy reading!

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins.

This is an excellent multigenerational novel spanning decades and continents, and it made the National Book Award longlist. I read it a few years back and it has really stuck with me. It begins in the 1970s, when a Bengali family moves from London to New York City because of the father’s job. Ranee is used to moving her family around, but she’s not thrilled about this latest move and leaving behind a place she’d just gotten used to. For her teenage daughters Tara and Sonia, New York is both exciting and terrifying. It’s in New York that they come into their own identities and passions, and make choices their traditional mother disapproves of. And years later, their own daughters Chantel and Anna reckon with the choices their mothers and grandmother made as a new millennium dawns.

“Where am I from? Can the answer be stories and words, some of theirs, some of mine?”

This is a beautiful and moving story composed of chapters that move back and forth between Tara and Sonia, and then Chantel and Anna. The chapters feel like beautiful vignettes at first, and then slowly build to a story arc that tells of the excitement and pain of being an immigrant, and all of the tragedies and triumphs that come with assimilating. When Sonia marries a Black man, she passes on to her daughter the particular challenge of being multiracial, and honoring her two families and their traditions.

What I loved best about this book is that although the women of this family face difficulties and find themselves estranged from one another at times, it’s not a tragic story and their lives aren’t marred by darkness. There is struggle, but there is also love and sisterhood and hope, as well as pride and acceptance in where they come from and all that they’ve been through. I found it difficult to decide which sister and which time period I liked the most, but there is something very satisfying about seeing a character through years of struggle to a triumphant moment. Technically, this is a YA novel, but I think because of its unconventional structure that adult readers will really enjoy it, too.

That’s it from me–but be sure to check out our coverage of how COVID-19 is affecting the book world. We’re updating it as news unfolds.

Happy reading!

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

Since this week has been a bit wild with so many closures, disruptions, and uncertainty due to the spread of COVID-19, I think what we need is a happy recommendation. This week’s pick is The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman.

“Nina had looked around and realized she would never run out of things to read, and that certainty filled her with peace and satisfaction. It didn’t matter what hit the fan; as long as there were unread books in the world, she would be fine.”

Nina Hill has a very routine, orderly life. She schedules everything–her job at her local independent bookstore, meals, working out, trivia team nights, and even her reading time. She likes books better than most people, and is completely content…until she learns the father she never knew has died, and she has scads of siblings, nieces, and nephews, some clamoring to meet her, some suspicious of her very existence. And if that wasn’t shock enough, her trivia rival is super cute and seems to actually like her?

This is a really gentle book about comforting and happy things, with enough drama and conflict to keep the book moving, but not enough to upset the reader. While not many of us may be able to relate to discovering your deceased father is actually pretty stinking rich and might have left you a lot of money, or meeting family you never knew you had, the challenges that Nina deals with are pretty common. She struggles with the desire to eat healthier and exercise more, but she also doesn’t know how to deal with her emotions or what to do when her anxiety gets out of control. But Nina’s desire for peace and fictional worlds is definitely relatable to book nerds, and her snappy humor and trivia prestige will make book nerds feel as though they’ve discovered a kindred spirit. The romance is very sweet and not too sexy (no on-the-page sex), and the plot is full of cute twists and charming coincidences that will make you smile.

Definitely pick up this book if you want something funny and reassuring, with a touch of family drama and escapism all rolled in one! Bonus: I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Emily Rankin, and it was lovely!

And if you want to keep up with how COVID-19 is impacting the book world, including resources to support authors and indie bookstores during this difficult time, check out Book Riot’s story stream of COVID-19 updates.

Happy reading!
Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!

This week’s pick is The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui.

Content warning: Mention of rape, war violence

Thi Bui has grown up with the effects of the Vietnam War looming over her life like a shadow. Born in Vietnam, she and her family fled to the U.S. in the late 1970s as South Vietnam fell. Her mother was eight months pregnant when they left, and she gave birth to Thi’s younger brother in a refugee camp. The family landed in the U.S. shortly after, staying with relatives in the Midwest before making their way to a more temperate climate and an independent life in California. But their struggles don’t end there.

“How much of me is my own, and how much is stamped into my blood and bone, predestined?”

This is the question that haunts Bui, and her memoir. She starts her account in New York City in 2005, as she is in labor with her son. It’s a moment that should connect her to her own mother, and Bui is full of hope that it will mark a new phase in their relationship. But her mother is not present in the way Bui hopes, and she is once again reminded of the vast disconnect between herself and her parents. With beautiful artwork in black, cream, and a shade that intensifies from peach to burnt orange, Bui moves back and forth through time, showing readers glimpses of her parents’ pasts: her father’s harrowing childhood in a village marred by violence, and her mother’s more privileged upbringing that is nonetheless affected by colonialism and unrest.

She reconstructs her family’s history, their small and large tragedies, and analyzes how her family influenced the person she has become. Bui wrestles with some pretty big themes and issues–trauma, the immigrant experience, the complicated legacies our families pass down, and the difficulties of excavating a history that you didn’t live or were too young to remember in order to understand your present. Most pressing of all? The fear that she will somehow permanently affect her own son. This journey is not easy, but the result is a beautiful, moving memoir about strength, resilience, and the courage to start anew. Even if you don’t think graphic novels are your jam, I highly recommend giving this book a shot because the story and the artwork are both very powerful.

Happy reading,

Tirzah

Find me on Book Riot, the Insiders Read Harder podcast, All the Books, and Twitter.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, click here to subscribe.