New and noteworthy paperback titles coming out this Tuesday. Arranged by newest released to oldest.
There are now cateogries that will breakdown titles by different criteria.
Bestselling New and Noteworthy Paperbacks | New and Noteworthy Non Fiction Paperbacks | New and Noteworthy SF/F/H Paperbacks |
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This book is truly something special. Kenan so well captures the atmosphere of Down East North Carolina that you’ll feel the thick inland air close on your skin as you read. Each story is a masterclass in subtle surprise, full of the gentlest delight and horror, and each life – those being lived and those long past being resurrected – is rendered so fully that once you close the pages you’ll feel you’ve also spent a lifetime in Tims Creek. You won’t want to leave.
— Chris Lee
While Randall Kenan’s protagonists roam from Las Vegas to Barbados, the heart of this collection is small town of Tims Creek, North Carolina. One character runs into Billy Idol, while another, in a powerhouse autofiction story, buys a home that was said to be a stop on the Underground Railroad, only to see a ghost who traveled the route. Two of the women find themselves with unwanted gifts – one is asked by Howard Hughes to be his cook while another finds she has unwanted healing powers when she joins a megachurch. Kenan’s stories are both classic and modern, folk-infused and of the moment, exploring race, gender, and identity. It’s been almost thirty years since Let the Dead Bury the Dead, which I still own in hardcover; Kenan’s been busy teaching and focusing on his nonfiction writing, including several books on James Baldwin. The wait was worth it!
— Daniel Goldin
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Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy #3) (Paperback)
This is the story of four generations of Cherokee women and their men in Oklahoma and Texas. The words are uncomplicated, all the more beautiful for their graceful, plain-spoken style. The writing is easy to love, and so are the people. We feel their strength and sorrow, the excited warmth of new romance and the hot anger of losing it. Everyone is confused about the reasons everyone else does things. Welcome to humanity, but the simplest human joys are right there for you, for anyone who can see them and try to hold on. The book is just as gorgeous as the awe-inspiring mess of being alive. It grows and deepens like life itself. Justine says, “You’ve got to keep moving, whatever you do,” and in less than 300 pages we’re moved through rich details of full people, daily survival, and love no matter what else comes. An exceptional debut!This is the story of four generations of Cherokee women and their men in Oklahoma and Texas. The words are uncomplicated, all the more beautiful for their graceful, plain-spoken style. The writing is easy to love, and so are the people. We feel their strength and sorrow, the excited warmth of new romance and the hot anger of losing it. Everyone is confused about the reasons everyone else does things. Welcome to humanity, but the simplest human joys are right there for you, for anyone who can see them and try to hold on. The book is just as gorgeous as the awe-inspiring mess of being alive. It grows and deepens like life itself. Justine says, “You’ve got to keep moving, whatever you do,” and in less than 300 pages we’re moved through rich details of full people, daily survival, and love no matter what else comes. An exceptional debut!
— Tim McCarthy
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There's a humanity to this novel that runs deeper than most, a gradual but constant movement through the earthy details of life and love. It's powerful, like the glaciers that form a vital part of the setting, and the longer I read the more it overtook me. We see the members of one family, several generations apart, and find the connections between a man who becomes a legendary survivor in 1890s Norway and a woman looking for the meaning of family and happiness in present-day Minnesota. Their struggles are timeless and universal. We know the descendants will continue, their blood crossing generations in defiance of personal isolation and beautiful but treacherous landscapes. I wondered at times how they did it. So did they, but their love is the greatest answer to how and why. I understand Geye's characters, and I think they would understand me. What greater compliment could I give a novelist?
— Tim McCarthy
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Let's get into it - Backman's Anxious People is an onion of a novel that's kind of about a bank robbery gone wrong, kind of about a father and son, and kind of about all sorts of anxious, endearing characters who are really just trying to find their footing in the world. These pages are full of layers and unassuming at first, but there's a good chance it'll make you shed a tear or two, and you won't regret it even a little bit. I always start out a Backman novel thinking it's a little cheesy, and yet he always ends up proving me wrong. His ability to really put into writing all of the facets of human nature, and to weave together a story that's at once multifaceted, compelling, laugh-out-loud funny, and utterly relatable is a gift, and I'm thankful to experience it. Anxious People and all of the ridiculous, complex characters within hold that truly perfect blend of depth and levity that Backman has perfected in his novels - I can't think of a better book coming out in 2020, and I can't wait to make all of my friends read it too.
— Kira McGrigg
This is the kind of first novel that’s so good it makes me, as a writer, super-duper jealous. Conell takes on an upstairs-downstairs-in-NYC premise that has every bit of potential to fall into clichés, but her aim is true – even that title is layered with extra dashes of evocation, reference, and resonance. The drive of the story is the brewing fight between back-at-home-swimming-in-liberal-arts-education-debt Ruby, her meditating-birdwatching-trying-to-avoid-a-mental-breakdown-building-super father Martin, and her grew-up-in-the-penthouse-but-definitely-doesn’t-think-she’s-better-than-you oldest friend Caroline. The voice of the building’s last rent controlled Marxist Grandma figure even drops in from time to time with gently reminders that strife in work, relationships, meditation, and birdwatching is all a quite natural byproduct of the structures of capitalism. You don’t say? It’s definitely a big ideas novel about the tense intersections where money, class, and power become personal, but it’s the way Conell puts the pressure on character’s hearts as much as their wallets that make The Party Upstairs one you won’t soon forget.
— Chris Lee
The borders in the slums of a large Indian city are porous enough to entangle the lives of three people of different social standing. Each dreams of a different life. Two have the chance to fulfill their dreams if they toss the third to the wolves. Majumdar has set a morality play in a location where morality is a costly luxury. This tender but ultimately brutal tale will raise your empathy and scorch your heart.
— Kay Wosewick
I’m a sucker for a good vampire story, especially one that gleefully cribs from Stoker’s Dracula, and this ‘stranger (who’s probably a vampire) comes to town’ tale is tops. Hendrix transplants classic bloodsucker tropes to suburban South Carolina in the 90’s. As much as this is a fun idea book, Hendrix also has hardened horror chops; one rodent infested scene is going to keep my skin crawling forever - and I like rats! He’s not shy about social issues, either. It’s not exactly missing children from the white picket fence side of town who are left out of the news, and the book’s heroine reveals the strength and resolve of a middle class housewife and mom who maybe feels like feminist empowerment has passed her by. For anyone who likes smart, stylish horror that’s soaked in pop culture with a pinch of 90’s nostalgia, you’re going to love sinking your fangs into this book.
— Chris Lee
Ruthie (responsible, hardworking young manager of a retirement community) and Teddy (flaky, hot mess son of the retirement community owner) are opposites. When once-and-future-tattoo-artist Teddy gets trapped into being a personal assistant for two demanding residents of the community, Ruthie is sure Teddy will be gone the next day. Instead, Teddy thrives, working his way into everyone's hearts with his sweet nature and impulsive, fun personality. With his inevitable departure on the horizon, Ruthie just needs to guard her heart long enough to stay safe in her protective bubble of the retirement community forever. I have to say - this one really got to me. I cared so much about each character, and when I was done reading, I immediately flipped back to my favorite parts to enjoy them again. It's rare to find a romance novel that has both heart and sizzle in equal measure, but Sally Thorne makes it seem easy.
— Rachel Copeland
It’s 1999, and the crowd is dancing like it’s the end of the world. And while Y2K is on everyone’s minds, this is no repeat of Station Eleven, but it has that same sense of mystery, between the morphing characters (Vincent Smith alone goes from pauper to princess and back again) and the jumps across time and place, from a remote hotel off the coast of British Columbia to the posh restaurants of New York and on to a ship in the Pacific Ocean. Yes, there is a disaster at the center of the story, a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions, but that’s just one of the betrayals and thefts that populate the tale. It’s hard not to get lost in The Glass Hotel, an ethereal and moody novel that I’m still thinking about long after I turned the last page.
— Daniel Goldin
We know early on that the story is about a financial crime, a massive Ponzi scheme, but the book’s greatness is that the big money crime becomes a perfect vehicle for building extraordinary characters, settings, and themes. Vincent Smith begins and ends the novel as her life (yes, a girl named Vincent) shifts on a grand scale, at lightning speed, from 13-year-old vandal to... wow! St. John Mandel is so talented at revealing all of her characters that their personal trajectories become riveting. They somehow feel both unique and universal. In the process, we travel to the sharply contrasting and richly drawn landscapes of wealth and struggle, the spectacular hotel in a remote Canadian forest, the concrete indifference of New York City, Dubai, and desolate small towns. Yet in every mind and in every place the questions seem the same. Can we feel anchored anywhere to this world, or are we all adrift? Is anything certain or clearly real? In just 300 pages St. John Mandel has given us a penetrating, memorable look at our shared, and so often maddening, human experience.
— Tim McCarthy
Tom, just one of his many names, is different. As an alba, he does age, but at a rate much slower than most humans. An alba (short for albatross, a bird known to live longer than most) may well live a thousand years or more, and the implications are stunning, often heart wrenching, and always dangerous. The people he comes to know, including the actor and playwright William Shakespeare, are fascinating and well developed by Haig. Accusations of witchcraft are common in Tom's early years, during the 1500s and beyond, forcing him to continually move and change identities to avoid constant suspicion. He fears being used by people with complicated motivations. The revelations of Tom's life and the wisdom he gathers about time, loss, and the need to insulate himself from painful human connections are drawn beautifully in sequences and identities ranging from deep into the past to the future. Haig is not writing science fiction here, but rather making us believe that this could actually be happening. I don't typically compare authors, but I felt changed by this book in ways similar to reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Bone Clocks, and Slade House. This is an excellent novel!
— Tim