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Hello, star bits! You will not be surprised to learn that I spent this past weekend reading books. Shocking, I know! I read a few things that I enjoyed, but the book that really stood out was Beanie the Bansheenie by Eoin Colfer and Steve McCarthy. Colfer is known for his Artemis Fowl series, but this is an upcoming long-form picture book based in Irish folklore that’s about a baby banshee who is looking to bond with a human. The story itself is wonderful, but it’s the artwork that took my breath away. It’s some of the most imaginative illustrations I have seen, and I cannot wait to get my hands on a finished copy!
Now, let’s talk about this week’s batch of new books! Today, I have a collection of interconnected stories about a serial killer, a return to a small Maine town by a Pulitzer-winning author, and a super creepy middle grade read. As for this week’s other new releases, I want sooo many of them! I am hoping to pick up The Avian Hourglass by Lindsey Drager, Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life by Sofia Samatar, Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa and translated by Stephen B. Snyder, and The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey. (Her last novel, Pet, was one of the best books I have read recently and also one of the most upsetting. I want to curl into a ball every time I think about it. But in the best way.)
NYRB is also releasing a new edition of the 1973 children’s picture book Everything Under a Mushroom by Ruth Krauss and Margot Tomes, which I love with the heat of a thousand suns. It’s very Maurice Sendak. And I only recently learned that Krauss was married to Crockett Johnson, the author of Harold and the Purple Crayon! You can hear about more of the fabulous books coming out today on this week’s episode of All the Books! Vanessa and I talked about some great recent books, including Never Saw Me Coming by Tanya Smith, Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid, and The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia!
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
This is Strout’s fifth return to Crosby, Maine, in her Amgash series. This time, she focuses on lawyer Bob Burgess, who has become wrapped up in a new friendship with Lucy Barton while also defending a local man for the murder of his mother. Curmudgeonly Olive Kitteridge also appears in the novel, as she spends time in her retirement community apartment, swapping stories with Lucy. It’s more of the same — but that’s a good thing. Strout has a singular voice and a knack for capturing the voices of eccentric characters. Or, as we call them here, “Mainers.”
Backlist bump: My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Read at Your Own Risk by Remy Lai
Holy cats, I have been waiting so long to tell you about this book. I read it last year and it creeped me the hell out! I did not expect it to be so alarming since it’s a middle grade horror book, but wow, was I wrong. Hannah and her friends decide to mess around and do one of those things kids shouldn’t do: contact the spirits. Now an evil spirit has possessed Hannah’s journal and told Hannah she is cursed. Not great, Bob. As readers get further into the book-slash-Hannah’s journal, more and more upsetting things happen to Hannah, who is desperately looking for a way to stop her impending doom. (GAH! THE BUG — DO NOT WANT.) It’s scary, pretty gross, and a whole bunch of fun! Also, be sure to check out Lai’s other graphic novel coming this year. It’s called Chickenpox, and it is fantastic and not creepy at all.
Backlist bump: Ghost Book by Remy Lai
Highway Thirteen: Stories by Fiona McFarlane
Books about the lives touched by serial killers are hot right now. Case in point: for fans of Bright Young Women and Notes on an Execution comes a great collection of interconnected stories revolving around a serial killer. The town of Barrow, Australia, was made famous for all the wrong reasons after a man killed twelve of its citizens. These stories reflect on both past and present: the families, the dreams, the grief left behind in the wake of such imaginable violence. It’s about the stories we tell about people when they’re gone and the events that carry on in their absences. I would buy McFarlane’s grocery list if they published it. Her writing is incendiary.
Backlist bump: The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane
This week, I am reading the Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan manga series by Sasami Nitori. If it is a manga with a cat (or cats) involved, you can bet I will read it. There are so many! I’m also reading Tell Me What I Am by Una Mannion, which is out in paperback today. Outside of books, I am starting another viewing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (“Dawn’s in trouble, must be Tuesday.”) The song stuck in my head this week is “Freeway” by Aimee Mann. And here is your weekly cat picture: Farrokh thinks he is pretty cute. And he is correct. (Related: This weekend we had friends with a baby visiting. And after the baby had been resting in one spot on her mat on the floor when they moved her, Farrokh lay down in that spot as if to say, “This is the place where babies go!”)
“Sometimes you read a book so special that you want to carry it around with you for months after you’ve finished just to stay near it.”—Markus Zusak
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