Finished the final draft, sent out the files, and ordered copies of the hardcover and paperback. Release date is set for May 25, aka #GeekPrideDay (appropriate for a #superhero#novel launch, I think). The pre-order links to pretty much every major retailer are up and linked on my site, https://JeffreyHarlan.com
Now to play my favorite video games for the first time in 3 months.
I had a really fun conversation with @jesse and the hosts of KPCW's "Cool Science Radio" about our forthcoming book "The Secret Life of Data" from @themitpress. Check it out here:
@bookstodon
My most anticipated books in '24, by the month thread: May is always a blockbuster month for book publishing. This year is no exception. Believe it or not, this is my trimmed list:
MAY 2024:
AMÉRICA DEL NORTE, Nicolas Medina Mora
CINEMA LOVE, Jiaming Tang
THE MINISTRY OF TIME, Kaliane Bradley
WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST, Alina Grabowski
ARCHANGELS OF FUNK, Andrea Hairston
DAUGHTERS OF SHANDONG, Eve J. Chung
GHOSTROOTS, 'Pemi Aguda
HOW IT WORKS OUT, Myriam Lacroix
SEE: LOSS. SEE ALSO: LOVE, Yukiko Tominaga
THIS BOOK WON'T BURN, Samira Ahmed
ALL FOURS, Miranda
LONELINESS & COMPANY, Charlee Dryoff
LEANING ON AIR, Cheryl Grey Bostrom
WHALE FALL, Elizabeth O'Connor
THE DEEPEST LAKE, Andromeda Romano-Lax
WHEN AMONG CROWS, Veronica Roth
IN REPAIR, A.L. Graziadei
MY FIRST BOOK, Honor Levy
MY DARLING DREADFUL THING, Johanna van Veen
OYE, Melissa Mogollon
BLUE RUIN, Hari Kunzru
THE WEALTH OF SHADOWS, Graham Moore
LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE, Terah Shelton Harris
COEXISTENCE: STORIES, Billy Ray Belcourt
THE INCORRIGIBLES, Meredith Jaeger
A HOUSE LIKE AN ACCORDION, Audrey Burges
A NORTHERN LIGHT IN PROVENCE, Elizabeth Birkelund
CECILIA, K Ming Chang
EXHIBIT, R.O. Kwon
GODDESS OF THE RIVER, Vaishnavi Patel
LOST ARK DREAMING, Suyi Davies Okungbo
PERFUME & PAIN, Anna Dorn
THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Stuart Turton
@bookstodon New and notable books in the U.S. for December 5, 2023.
Dazzling, Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ. [West African mythology collides with modern Nigeria, in this tale centered on two girls who struggle to bend magic to their wills.]
After World, Debbie Urbanski. [AI, one last human on Earth, the recovery of the climate, and the surprising connections that arise.]
A River of Golden Bones, A.K. Mulford. [Sleeping Beauty retelling with queer rep AND Werewolves.]
Five Bad Deeds, Caz Frear. [Perhaps we are all badly-behaved, esp. society's privileged suburban set. This story is suspenseful, vengeful, and super twisty.]
Orbital, Samantha Harvey. [A thoughtful look at ourselves. If we could observe our planet from great remove, how would it change our perspective, our focus, even our priorities?]
Airplane Mode, Shanaz Habib. [Through the lens of travel, the author has a lot to say about our history of racism and ethnocentrism, and about our post-colonial world. Witty, funny, and incisive. Long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medals of Excellence.]
The End of The World is a Cul-de-sac, Louise Kennedy. [Smartly written short stories. Crisp, wry, clarion, and contemporary.]
The Folly, Gemma Amor. [Give me your secluded creepy Gothic mystery!]
Yours For The Taking, Gabrielle Korn. [Climate fiction future. Progress has a dark side.]
@bookstodon Notable* new fiction and nonfiction book releases in the U.S. for November 21, 2023:
Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games, Carmen Maria Machado, ed. [Anthology of essays on this popular tech, and its specific effects on gamer culture, particularly for gamers who are also writers.]
Sailing the Graveyard Sea, Richard Snow. [The only mutiny in the history of the U.S. Navy, a story with plenty of surprises.]
Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South, Elizabeth Varon. [When you can't make up your mind, everyone pegs you as a traitor.]
The Ghosts of Beatrice Bird, Louisa Morgan. [When you get tired of ghosts, the thing to do is find an island of nuns and cows, and maybe a solitary soul who needs your help.]
Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration, Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggets. [I am told that these stories of deep testimony will make you weep.]
A Long Day in a Short Life, Albert Maltz. [Perfect timing for this re-release about incarceration, injustice, racism, classism, and most of all, what we need to do to have a stronger more equitable democracy.]
(Technically published on November 16th) A Thousand Golden Cities: 2500 Years of Writing From Afghanistan and its People, Justin Marozzi. [A veritable encyclopedia of Afghan literature at a hefty 836 pages, full of undiscovered treasures, esp. for Western readers.]
A True Account, Katherine Howe. [Dual timeline narrative of a woman who breaks free by becoming a pirate, and the researcher two centuries later who would also like to escape her confined role in society.]
Saevus Corax Captures the Castle, K.J. Parker. [Book Two of the Corax trilogy. Plucky, unconventional leader of a salvage team needs to save his crew.]
*There are also boatloads of new manga and quite a few book series releases.
Looking to discover #NewBooks on #CentralEurope and #EasternEurope? The Central European University Review of Books showcases new titles on the history, culture, and politics of the region.
@bookstodon New and notable book releases in the U.S. for November 14, 2023
So Late in The Day, Claire Keegan. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ [Three short, but impactful, stories about relationships between men and women, particularly focusing on agency and autonomy. Strong voice and sense of place.]
The Book of Ayn, Lexi Freiman. [Razor-sharp satire targeting contemporary politics and culture, and the people who think they're above it all.]
Good Girls Don't Die, Christina Henry. [What if you woke up trapped inside your favorite book genre trope, and your familiarity with that type of story is the only way you'll get out alive?]
Other Minds and Other Stories, Bennett Sims. [Strange, eerie, weird, sometimes humorous, but also edging toward horror. Clever stories that slip into that liminal space between fear and anxiety.]
Pritty, Keith F. Miller, Jr. [Family loyalties, gay identity, and an unsolved murder, are all points of tension affecting the relationship between two young Black men in the entrenched culture of Savannah.]
Kinfolk, Sean Dietrich. [Feelgood story of found family and second chances in the Deep South.]
The Great Gimmelmans, David Matthew Goldberg. [Hilarious adventure-chase story of a family on the run in an RV. They must face more than the Feds as they tackle greed, family loyalty, religious traditions, and what it takes to create close bonds.]
A New Race of Men From Heaven, Chaitali Sen. [These short stories feature those who are searching, the wanderers, those who migrate in both a literal and a figurative sense.]
Blood Orange, Yaffa. [Reflective, sensory, liberation poetry, written by a Trans, Muslim, Palestinian author, a myriad self to excavate and transcend.]
Leizar, David Gelernter. November 15th. [The harrowing experiences of generations of a Polish Jewish family who survive in spite of pogroms and every kind of antisemitism.]
Sad Happens: A Celebration of Tears, Brandon Stosuy and Rose Lazar. Graphic Nonfiction. [When we don't try to repress our tears, we find ourselves healthier and, perhaps counterintuitively, happier. Various perspectives on the cleansing power of crying.]
The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are, Tariq Trotter. Nonfiction [Beautifully and poetically examination of how we develop not just our art, but also a deep sense of self.]
Sleep is Now a Foreign Country: Encounters With the Uncanny, Mike Barnes. Nonfiction [Mesmerizing fever dream memoir of madness.]
@bookstodon Notable new book releases in the US for October 24, 2023, (including an unusual number of anthologies).
Organ Meats, K-Ming Chang. [Incredibly imaginative and intense mythological allegory. Like Bestiary, it's very visceral.]
Julia, Sandra Newman. [Amazing feminist retelling of 1984, told from the perspective of Julia, with the full support of the Orwell estate.]
America Fantastica, Tim O'Brien. [Completely bonkers satirical look at America's obsession with lies and liars.]
Let Us Descend, Jesmyn Ward. [The inner spiritual strength that sustains souls trapped in a descent into the horrors of slavery, and their refusal to lose their inner worth.]
I Died, Too, But They Haven't Buried me Yet, Ross Jeffrey. [This is Grief Horror, described as beautifully and utterly heartbreaking.]
What Wild Women Do, Karma Brown. [Intriguing dual timeline mystery connecting a 1970s feminist activist and a modern day screenwriter.]
The Privilege of the Happy Ending: S/M/L Stories, Kij Johnson. [How 'bout a little experimental speculative fic along with an examination of the nature of stories themselves?]
Jewel Box, E. Lily Yu. [Short stories mostly about how we navigate and think about this one weird, crazy, confounding life, and where our imagination can take us.]
When We Become Ours: a YA Adoptee Anthology. [Powerful adoptee short stories written by actual adoptees.]
Christmas and Other Horrors: an Anthology of Solstice Horror, Ellen Datlow, ed. [Winter Solstice horror shorts from around the world, with contributions from Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, Tananarive Due, and more.]
Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance, Kaveh Akbar, ed. [Contributions from Jo Harjo, Bernard Wade, et al.]
Aster of Ceremonies: Poems, JJJJJerome Ellis. [Neurodivergent poet Ellis advocates for the marginalized, and also imagines what reclamation of our past, and healing for our future, might look like.]
Homeland of my Body: New and Selected Poems, Richard Blanco. [National Humanities medal winner Blanco explores home, identity, and Cuban-American culture in this collection.]
@bookstodon Notable new book releases in the U.S. for October 3, 2023, many of which are horror titles:
Death Valley, Melissa Broder. [One woman's quest to process loss, leads her to a desert odyssey. You wouldn't think this would be as funny as it is.]
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, Jordan Peele, ed.
The Quiet Room, Terry Miles. [No one told me that there was a sequel to Rabbits?!? Also, you should totally read Rabbits. It's amazing.]
Beholder, Ryan La Sala. [Horror which plays into all the fears we have about the reflection in the mirror.]
Edenville, Sam Rebelein. [This equal parts humor and horror story, taps into our tendency to see what we want, instead of what's there.]
Starling House, Alix E. Harrow. [Small town Southern Gothic by a wicked good storyteller.]
Before the Devil Knows You're Here, Autumn Krause. [Forest folk tale (Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed) horror, a Faustian bargain, and a Mexican-American poet with a missing brother. This sounds amazing!]
Knock Knock, Open Wide, Neil Sharpson. [Horror blended with Celtic folklore. Very frightening.]
Gone Wolf, Amber McBride. [Too powerful to be just for younger readers. What it means to be Black and young in America.]
Monica, Daniel Clowes. [Superb graphic novel offers a multilayered deep dive into a complex life.]
Brooklyn Crime Novel, Jonathan Lethem. [In one neighborhood, over time, the good guys and the bad guys are hard to tell apart.]
The House on Sun Street, Mojgan Ghazirad. [The 1979 Iran revolution, as seen by a young girl.]
Company: Stories, Shannon Sanders. [Intriguing interconnected stories, each connected by family, and by a guest who enters each story, examining different meanings of company. ]
One Puzzling Afternoon, Emily Critchley. [What if you kept a secret so long, you can't remember what it was, and it involves a long ago missing girl?]
After The Forest, Kell Woods. [Think you know your Fairy Tales? Clever reimagining of several tales at once.]
@bookstodon Notable new book releases in the U.S. for September 26, 2023. It took forever to wade through everything this week and try to narrow/compile the best list I could. Please be aware that there's also a lot of great teen, YA, and especially nonfiction released today.
Black River Orchard, Chuck Wendig. [An apple a day won't keep the horror away.] ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Furies, Margaret Atwood, et al. [Feminist tales aim to reclaim slurs used for centuries vs. strong independent female characters.]
Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang. [Examination of the seductive nature of consumption, in a clever allegory about Climate Change.]
The Golem of Brooklyn, Adam Mansbach. [Surprisingly funny and affecting story about faith, group identity, bigotry, and vengeance.]
People Collide, Isle McElroy. [Gender swap premise remade with sharp intelligence and thoughtful questions about sexuality/identity.]
And Then She Fell, Alicia Elliott. [First Nations new mother in Toronto feels her belonging and her sanity unraveling, and cannot determine how much she's being gaslit.]
The Caretaker, Ron Rash. [A small town, in which each character thinks they know what really matters, until dramatic events make them see more clearly.]
The Witches of Bone Hill, Ava Morgyn. [Dark twists and turns abound in this creepy house of horror thriller.]
Enlightened, Sachi Ediriweera. [Graphic novel about the origin of Buddhism: Siddhartha. Told through the prince on a journey.]
The Navigating Fox, Christopher Rowe. [Intriguing speculative/alt history fiction about the Roman Empire expanding into some of North America and, happily, all of the Indigenous Nations still thrive.]
Undiscovered, Gabriela Weiner, Julia Sanchez, translator. [Partially based on actual history, about the emotional
struggle to reconcile the colonial past with modern identity.]
Blackward, Lawrence Lindell. [Fantastic title, right? A graphic novel for all of us who felt like we didn't belong to the cool club in school, with special love for Black, queer, nerdy, "weird" folks.]
The Out Side: Trans and Nonbinary Comics, The Kao, ed. [I enjoyed this graphic novel. You rarely see comics about the experiences of coming out, collected all in one place.] ⭐⭐⭐⭐