Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack.
Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.
Book award announcements are coming out left and right. One of the latest ones is the Kirkus Prize, which has awarded prizes in fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. And, in genius news, Tommy Orange, author of There, There and Wandering Stars, has been named a MacArthur Fellow. Big things poppin’!
Now for new books. Seasonal readers will appreciate the cursed A Harvest of Furies by Hayden Casey, and C. J. Cooke’s latest historical novel, The Last Witch. For the fantasy lovers, there’s the gorgeously illustrated Chronicles of Ori: An African Epic by Harmonia Rosales and the cozy-queer The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong. Speaking of queer tings, the comic Lilith Vol. 1 by Corin Howell is gruesome and delightfully lesbian.
This week’s featured new releases include several award-nominated books, among them an India-set dystopian novel, and the story of a queer artist in New York City. There’s also, naturally, a campy and witchy Latine murder mystery.
New Books
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A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
This National Book Award long-listed book is set in a near-future dystopian Kolkata, India, where food is scarce and climate change has wreaked havoc. Ma is this close to escaping the constant floods and lack of food by taking her aging father and her two-year-old daughter with her to become reunited with her husband in the United States. But then her painstakingly attained immigration documents are stolen, and her family’s future suddenly doesn’t feel so secure. Over a week, she sets out to find the thief and recover her things—but we find out the thief is Boomba, who is desperate to save his family, too. His crimes have been escalating, all in the name of love and survival. Both families want to survive in a world they didn’t create, that doesn’t seem to have enough for them.
Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor
Booker Prize finalist Taylor’s latest follows a queer Black artist from the South who is struggling a bit to find his place in the Manhattan art scene. Wyeth is navigating bad art shows, pretension, and even backstabbing as he tries to settle into a new art ecosystem. Then he meets Keating, who left the priesthood, and he begins to question the way Blackness fits into white art spaces…or rather, how it doesn’t.
Boom Town by Nic Stone
This was mentioned in the monthly new releases round-up. Here’s what Jamie Canaves had to say about it:
After Michah “Lyriq” Johanssen’s former partner and dancer at Boom Town disappeared, another dancer, Damaris “Charm” Wilburn, didn’t show up for her shift. Lyriq finds no help in finding the women and is plunged into the underworld of Atlanta as she narrows in on a wealthy man with an obsession.
Female Fantasy by Iman Hariri-Kia
This was mentioned in the monthly new releases round-up. Here’s what Nikki DeMarco had to say about it:
Equal parts satirical, steamy, and swoony, Female Fantasy is a romance novel tailor-made for book lovers who can’t resist a meta twist. Joonie, a copywriter by day and fanfic writer by night, knows no real guy can measure up to her ultimate book boyfriend—a merman hero named Ryke. But when she learns Ryke is based on a real person, she sets off to track him down, dragging along her brother’s infuriating best friend as an unwilling road-trip companion. What follows is a hilariously chaotic, self-aware journey through romance tropes that doubles as a genuine story about finding love where you least expect it. This is a joyful reminder of why readers fall in love with the genre in the first place.
More New Releases Mentioned Today on All The Books! Podcast:
- 🎧 Listen to Liberty talk about Vagabond: A Memoir by Tim Curry
- 🎧 Listen to Vanessa talk about Queer Enlightenments: A Hidden History of Lovers, Lawbreakers, and Homemakers by Anthony Delaney
- 🎧 Listen to Vanessa talk about The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson
- 🎧 Listen to Liberty talk about The Wayfinder by Adam Johnson
- 🎧 Listen to Liberty talk about Red City (The New Alchemists) by Marie Lu
- 🎧 Listen to Vanessa talk about The Hong Kong Widow by Kristen Loesch
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:
- All the Books, our weekly new book releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about eight books out that week that we’ve read and loved.
- The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz.
- Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by trending books, Rioters’ picks, and even LGBTQ new releases!
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