18 new books to get from your local indie today.
Today is apparently Amaz*n Prime Day, which I strongly encourage you to boycott by buying all these new books from your favorite independent bookstore. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, because you, dear reader, know that Jeff Bezos is NOT your friend. Booksellers are your friends. These new books are your friends. We’re your friends and friends don’t let friends give evil people money. Friends give friends book recs. Here ya go.
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Claire Messud, Kant’s Little Prussian Head & Other Reasons Why I Write
(W. W. Norton)
“Messud’s personal essays are, by turns, mischievously funny, emotionally wrenching, and elegantly intellectual.”
–Booklist
Xiaolu Guo, A Lover’s Discourse
(Grove Press)
“The novelist, memoirist and film-maker Xiaolu Guo writes with tremendous delicacy and nuance about migration, language, alienation, and love.”
–The Spectator
Sarah Smarsh, She Come by It Natural
(Scribner)
“Smarsh’s luminescent prose and briskly tempered storytelling make for an illuminating take on a one-of-a-kind artist.”
–Publishers Weekly
John Grisham, A Time for Mercy
(Doubleday)
“This one’s for Grisham diehards.”
–Publishers Weekly
Julia Zarankin, Field Notes From an Unintentional Birder
(Douglas & McIntyre)
“This sense of wonder in the ordinary permeates Field Notes From an Unintentional Birder, a thoughtful, engaging and sometimes humorous memoir that documents Zarankin’s evolution from shy novice birder to confident expert.”
–Minneapolis Star Tribune
Lisa Jewell, Invisible Girl
(Atria Books)
“[A] tangled, riveting, thought-provoking psychological thriller.”
–Criminal Element
David Leavitt, Shelter In Place
(Bloomsbury)
“[A] delightfully sly comedy of manners.”
–Booklist
Martin J. Sherwin, Gambling with Armageddon
(Knopf)
“This deeply researched account has a you-are-there feel.”
–Library Journal
Rebecca Roanhorse, Black Sun
(Gallery/Saga Press)
“A beautifully crafted setting with complex character dynamics and layers of political intrigue? Perfection.”
–Kirkus
Max Gross, The Lost Shtetl
(Harpervia)
“Imaginative and philosophical, funny and sad, old and new—mazel tov, Mr. Gross.”
–Kirkus
Harold Bloom, Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles
(Yale University Press)
“In 16 dense, erudite, and surprisingly intimate essays, Bloom (1930-2019) offers a sweeping overview of major Western poets.”
–Kirkus
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, tr. Iona MacIntyre and Fiona Macintosh, The Adventures of China Iron
(Charco Press)
“An unexpected ride that delivers on all accounts.”
–DIVA Magazine
Adrian Goldsworthy, Philip and Alexander
(Basic Books)
“The thorough and riveting narrative of both Philip and Alexander’s lives and accomplishments makes this an ideal choice for the general reader, with some fresh insights to offer to those familiar with the subjects as well.”
–Library Journal
William Souder, Mad at the World
(W. W. Norton)
“Souder, in his own humble style, has brought a deeply human Steinbeck forth in all his flawed, melancholy, brilliant complication.”
–The Washington Post
L. David Mech, Wolf Island
(University of Minnesota Press)
“Nature lovers will enjoy Mech’s mix of reminiscence and zoological insight.”
–Publishers Weekly
Craig Brown, 150 Glimpses of the Beatles
(FSG)
“As lush and layered as a jumbo box of chocolates. The effect it has had is to send me spinning off into Beatles heaven.”
–New Statesman
Robert D. Putnam, The Upswing
(Simon & Schuster)
“Drawing ingeniously on a vast array of data—economic, political, cultural, social and more—Mr. Putnam and Ms. Garrett persuasively demonstrate that Gilded Age America suffered from civic and social strains remarkably similar to our own.”
–The Wall Street Journal
Merrill Markoe, We Saw Scenery
(Algonquin Books)
“[A] marvelously oddball coming-of-age memoir with laughs and a talking hippo.”
–Shelf Awareness
