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I feel like Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki-related things make one of the very few categories of stuff that I never tire of. Now, I’m not saying my house is decked out in Ghibli-themed decorations are anything, but I will click the hell out of an article telling me how to make it happen. If you, like me, love the whimsical, charming, and slightly melancholic vibes of Studio Ghibli, K.W. Colyard has some suggestions for reading nook decor.
New books-wise, there’s a lot to discuss. For one, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout’s Tell Me Everything is actually out today (I’ve mentioned it in a new release roundup already, but the publishing date changed).
For the sports ball lovers, there’s Above the Noise: My Story of Chasing Calm, a memoir by DeMar DeRozan (who I, admittedly, only know because of Kendrick Lamar’s diss track), and an inspirational self-help book by Venus Williams titled Strive: 8 Steps to Find Your Awesome.
For the youngins, there’s the Mexico City-based middle grade magical realism adventure Lola by Karla Arenas Valenti; the contemporary YA Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian; and To the Bone by Alena Bruzas, a particularly gruesome YA historical fiction novel.
Switching to adult sci-fi and fantasy, we have the “queer, Caribbean, anti-colonial sci-fi novella” (!!) Countess by Suzan Palumbo; the Shakespeare Romantasy retelling Vilest Things by Chloe Gong; and the African and Arabian mythology-inspired, rebellion-filled The Ending Fire by Saara El-Arifi (with its stunning cover). The latter two are both part of a series.
Nonfiction girlies will appreciate Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, the latest by Yuval Noah Harari. And, speaking of AI, there are, perhaps unsurprisingly, a few new books that discuss it coming out this week. In addition to Harari’s, there’s The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World by Christine Rosen, and Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World by Parmy Olson.
Now for the featured books below: a sapphic romantasy looks at the story of Dracula with fresh eyes, the love life and activism of Ida B. Wells shows the historical figure as a fully fleshed-out person, and we see modern India on the precipice of change. There’s also some great horror (naturally).
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
Lately, we’ve gotten plenty of great, feminist retellings of iconic women in literature and mythology, but Kiersten White’s (Hide, Mister Magic) Lucy Undying breathes fresh life into the tale of Lucy Westenra, Dracula’s first English victim. Since she was first bitten, she’s been trying to escape Dracula, but it’s in the 21st century that she finally meets a woman similarly trying to escape. Iris is charming, but her family—with their ill-begotten health empire—won’t let her out of their clutches. And Dracula, meanwhile, is back on his BS. Still, Lucy’s and Iris’s connection feels real and intense, and it might be a real chance at happiness.
And side, note, but the cover is amazing. I just got a copy and I noticed the wolves in Lucy’s hair. Ugh.
Ida, in Love and in Trouble by Veronica Chambers
I have a copy of this, and I am so excited to finish it. It opens up with a young Ida B. Wells in an opera house in Memphis. It’s 1886, and we follow Ida as she becomes the journalistic icon we know her to be—but we don’t just see her in marches or covering lynchings. We see big sister Ida, teacher Ida, lover of the arts Ida, and, yes, hot tamale Ida (the good sis could flirt, okay).
Reading historical fiction has long been my favorite way to learn about history, and I love that we’re seeing different perspectives of Black life in the late 1800s.
Quarterlife by Devika Rege
This award-winning debut is already big in India, where it takes place. In it, we see the country on the precipice of change. The narrative builds through a few characters—there’s the jaded Wall Street consultant, Naren, who returns to Mumbai with Amanda, a New Englander who will carry out a teaching fellowship in a poverty-stricken Muslim-majority area. Then there’s Rohit, Nren’s amateur filmmaker brother, who befriends young Hindu nationalists. As they each interact in their chosen corners, Rege deftly weaves us between fiery debates and complexities that culminate in a busy night when the entirety of Mumbai is on the street—and when everything that was boiling erupts.
Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson
I don’t always necessarily see the vision trying to be shared in book blurb comparisons—there were a few too many BIPOC-centered thrillers being compared to Jordan Peele’s Get Out after the film’s huge success, for example—but the mention of the movies The Menu and Ready or Not feel really apt here. That’s because, once thrifty fashionista canoodles her way into The Marie Caulfield-Ruskin’s isolated island mansion through her arrogant son, and their indentured servants start killing them off one by one as revenge, she realizes that maybe she doesn’t want that internship with Marie after all. Maybe she wants to struggle a Ruskin or two herself.
So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison
I love how Harrison seems to be working her way through the ghoulies commonly found in the Western canon. Here, Sloane’s birthday is coming up, and she’s indifferent about it at worst and bummed about the reminder of her own mortality at worst. But her husband, the cheating dog he is, actually arranges something nice for her. He sets up a weekend getaway with her messy fun friend Naomi. Now Sloane thinks they’re just going to have a cute lil girls’ staycation—replete with all the wine and cozy things you would think. But Always Turned Up Naomi has something else in mind. Something that involves spending a night out with mysterious strangers, and waking up to a life—and tastes—forever changed.
The Mesmerist by Caroline Woods
Okay, I think this has to be one of the best title+cover combos ever. When I saw the two together, I felt like I instantly knew what it was about, and that I was totally into it (and I was kind of right). It’s 1894 in Minneapolis when Faith arrives newly at the Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers. Unfortunately for her, she arrives at the same time as a string of unexplained deaths, and the other women in the house fill in her unknown history with dark magic. While Abby, a Quaker and the Home’s treasurer, doesn’t believe the rumors surrounding Faith, she does want to find out about her past and assigns Faith’s roommate, May, to investigate the girl. The more May finds out, the closer she’s brought to polite society and a happily ever after with Hal—and the more she realizes she can’t trust anyone, not even Abby. Especially as the bodies keep piling up.
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!
