Literairyland: April 9-15, 2024

This week's hot 🔥 new books, writer birthdays, and more

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This email includes 19 hot new books.

Table of Contents

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This Week’s Hot 🔥 New Fiction

Mystery & Thriller

The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas

Logline: From "one of the UK's most interesting authors" (Kirkus Reviews), Patricia Highsmith meets White Lotus in this surprising and suspenseful modern gothic story following a couple running from both secretive pasts and very present dangers while honeymooning on a Greek island.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

The Gathering by C.J. Tudor

Logline: A detective investigating a grisly crime in rural Alaska finds herself caught up in the dark secrets and superstitions of a small town in this riveting novel from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Daughter of Mine by Megan Miranda

Logline: The new thrilling novel from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors.

Publisher: Marysue Rucci Books

Reviews:
Kirkus

Horror

Grey Dog by Elliott Gish

Amazon | Bookshop

Logline: A subversive literary horror novel that disrupts the tropes of women's historical fiction with delusions, wild beasts, and the uncontainable power of female rage.

Publisher: ECW Press

Historical Fiction

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

Logline: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a spellbinding novel set in the Spanish Golden Age.

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Romance

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

Logline: A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang.

Publisher: Avon Books

Fantasy

The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten

Logline: In the second installment of New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten's lush romantic epic fantasy series, the glittering and dangerous world of the Sainted King's royal court is upended when Prince Bastian seizes control and a mysterious dark force begins to take over.

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Literary

There's Going to Be Trouble by Jen Silverman

Logline: A woman is pulled into a love affair with a radical activist, unknowingly echoing her family's dangerous past and risking the foundations of her future in this electrifying novel.

Publisher: Random House

The Limits by Nell Freudenberger

Logline: The most thrilling work yet from the best-selling, prize-winning author of The Newlyweds and Lost and Wanted, a stunning new novel set in French Polynesia and New York City about three characters who undergo massive transformations over the course of a single year.

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group

Coming of Age

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr

Logline: An extraordinary, gloriously uplifting novel about the power of friendship and the puzzling ties that bind us.

Publisher: Doubleday Books

This Week’s Hot 🔥 New Nonfiction

Memoir

The Wives by Simone Gorrindo

Logline: A captivating memoir that tells the story of one woman's experience of joining a community of army wives after leaving her New York City job--a profoundly intimate look at marriage, friendship, and today's America.

Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

The House of Being by Natasha Trethewey

Logline: An exquisite meditation on the geographies we inherit and the metaphors we inhabit, from Pulitzer Prize winner and nineteenth U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey.

Publisher: Yale University Press

Fi: A Memoir of My Son by Alexandra Fuller

Logline: From the award-winning New York Times-bestselling author of Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller, comes a career defining memoir about grieving the sudden loss of her twenty-one-year-old child.

Publisher: Grove Press

Psychology

The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

Logline: From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking.

Publisher: Atria/One Signal Publishers

Reviews:
Kirkus

History

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides

Logline: From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.

Publisher: Doubleday Books

Reviews:
Kirkus

The King of Diamonds: The Search for the Elusive Texas Jewel Thief by Rena Pederson

Logline: The thrilling story of a brazen, uncatchable jewel thief who roamed the homes of Dallas high society--and a window into the dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of the Swinging Sixties.

Publisher: Pegasus Crime

Native American Studies

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America by Kathleen Duval

Amazon | Bookshop

Logline: A magisterial history of Indigenous North America that places the power of Native nations at its center, telling their story from the rise of ancient cities more than a thousand years ago to fights for sovereignty that continue today.

Publisher: Random House

Spiritual

Somehow by Anne Lamott

Logline: From the bestselling author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow, a joyful celebration of love.

Publisher: Riverhead Books

This Week’s Hot 🔥 New Poetry

Rangikura: Poems by Tayi Tibble

Logline: A fiery second collection of poetry from the acclaimed Indigenous New Zealand writer that U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo calls, "One of the most startling and original poets of her generation."

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group

Bookish Trivia 🤔

Nella Larsen, born on April 13, 1891, and best known for her novel Passing, was the first African-American woman to receive which prestigious honor?

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This Week’s Literary Birthdays & Events

April 9

  • Jacques Futrelle

  • Margaret Peterson Haddix

  • Ken Kalfus

  • Joseph Krumgold

  • Leonard Levy

  • Paule Marshall

April 10

  • David A. Adler

  • Stuart Dybek

  • John M. Ford

  • Horace Gregory

  • David Halberstam

  • Stefan Heym

  • Rosemary Hill

  • Anne Lamott

  • Clare Turlay Newberry

  • Margaret Pemberton

  • George William Russell

  • Montague Summers

  • Paul Theroux

April 11

  • Ralph Compton

  • Ellen Goodman

  • Thomas Harris

  • Attila József

  • Misuzu Kaneko

  • Sergei Lukyanenko

  • Sándor Márai

  • Peter O'Donnell

  • Bernard O'Dowd

  • Christopher Smart

  • Mark Strand

  • David Westheimer

April 12

  • Greg Child

  • Tom Clancy

  • Beverly Cleary

  • Lisa Jardine

  • Scott Turow

April 13

  • Samuel Beckett

  • Seamus Heaney

  • Nella Larsen

  • Philip Norman

  • Judy Nunn

April 14

  • The Grapes of Wrath published (1939)

  • Péter Esterházy

  • Martin Lipp

  • Liz Renay

  • Tina Rosenberg

April 15

  • Jeffrey Archer

  • Melville Henry Cane

  • Bliss Carman

  • Helene Hanff

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See you next week!

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