It’s the first new release day of November and we’re stoked to present you some buzzy books that have us talkin,’ a few event books, and titles that you’ll want to grab for the holidays (Signed First Editions make great gifts, am I right??) ! Read on for more!
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Erin Morgenstern makes her triumphant return onto the literary scene with her first book since The Night Circus!
The Starless Sea presents readers with a a big, ambitious, rich, layered, smart, meaty novel full of Easter eggs for literature lovers, video gamers, and fans of fantasy. In it, we are introduced to Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a bookish graduate student who discovers a mysterious book among the library stacks that contains stories of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes. But among these stories he finds something strange and mysterious…a story from his own childhood.
Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth.
What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead.
Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.
In this title we have a bookseller favorite, one that’s been called, “spectacular,” (Rachel R.) “a labyrinth of paper-folded nightmares and book-bound dreams,” (Olivia) “light and rich, craveable sustainment that you want to both devour in a second and savor for as long as you possibly can,” (Tomoko), and “a love letter to all of us out there sailing the Starless Sea propelled by story and prose.” (Will B.) Everyone’s sure to be talking about this one, so come along for the ride today and grab a signed copy of The Starless Sea while we’ve got ’em!
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
The next book from Carmen Maria Machado is here and it comes highly recommended from some of our booksellers. In the Dream House is, in a nut-shell, a memoir about an abusive relationship the author was previously in. But it’s so much more than that. This book also: unpacks the myths of queer romance; speaks to the beguiling nature of love in the throes of turmoil; paints an utterly vulnerable portrait of a woman re-making herself.
Each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope—the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman—through which Machado holds the events up to the light, examining them from different angles. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of what happened to her and how it ultimately put her on a path to be the person she was becoming.
The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be. Molly M. says, “[In the Dream House] flows with the rush and clarity of a river, floating from concrete moments…to fairytale depictions of her surroundings and past. Carmen Maria Macahdo contains a power over language so strong and enchanting that I would be scared of her (I am a little scared of her) if I wasn’t so convinced of her force for good.” While Uriel extolls the book as, “a terrible beauty that offers salvation in the darkest of times,” Cristina calls it, “beautiful, insightful, and one of the best memoirs I’ve read this year.”
Don’t miss out on this bookseller favorite and mark January 28, 2020 on your calendars now! Machado will be joining us at the Austin Public Library that evening at 7PM to discuss this tremendous achievement of storytelling and form!
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
Bestselling author of The Raven Boys series, Maggie Stiefvater, begins an all new trilogy with the release of Call Down the Hawk.
Here the lives of three people (Ronan the dreamer, Jordan the thief, and Carmen the hunter) intersect to startling effect.
Though this new novel is set in the Raven Cycle and directly follows the events of The Raven King, Stiefvater assures new readers in her blog that you don’t have to be familiar with previous works to enjoy this standalone series of books. It’s a mesmerizing story of dreams and desires, death and destiny, and one that our eager booksellers can’t wait to get their hands on!
The Toll by Neal Shusterman
In the highly anticipated finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy, dictators, prophets, and tensions rise. In a world that’s conquered death, will humanity finally be torn asunder by the immortal beings it created?
Citra and Rowan have disappeared. Endura is gone. It seems like nothing stands between Scythe Goddard and absolute dominion over the world scythedom. With the silence of the Thunderhead and the reverberations of the Great Resonance still shaking the earth to its core, the question remains: Is there anyone left who can stop him?
The answer lies in the Tone, the Toll, and the Thunder. Join us to celebrate the conclusion of this series when Neal Shusterman stops by BookPeople on December 5 at 7PM to read from and sign The Toll!
I Am Perfectly Designed by Karamo & Jason Brown
I am Perfectly Designed is an exuberant celebration of loving who you are, exactly as you are, from Karamo Brown, the Culture Expert of Netflix’s hit series Queer Eye.
In this empowering ode to modern families, a boy and his father take a joyful walk through the city, discovering all the ways in which they are perfectly designed for each other.
Grab your copy from BookPeople today and get signing line tickets for the opportunity to meet the stellar duo behind this wonderful book on November 7th at 6:30PM! We hope to see you there!
The Witches are Coming by Lindy West
Halloween may have passed us by, but Lindy West has a brand new book that assures that the witches are coming.
In her new book of the same name, cultural critic Lindy West extolls the world-changing magic of truth, urging readers to reckon with dark lies in the heart of the American mythos, and unpacking the complicated, and sometimes tragic, politics of not being a white man in the twenty-first century. S
he tracks the misogyny and propaganda hidden (or not so hidden) in the media she and her peers devoured growing up, a buffet of distortions, delusions, prejudice, and outright bullsh*t that has allowed white male mediocrity to maintain a death grip on American culture and politics-and that delivered us to this precarious, disorienting moment in history. We cannot understand how we got here-how the land of the free became Trump’s America-without examining the chasm between who we are and who we think we are, without fact-checking the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and each other. The truth can transform us; there is witchcraft in it.
Lindy West turns on the light. Like Shrill, The Witches Are Coming is sure to inform, infuriate, and bring a humorous and insightful take on the world we’re living in today. Eugenia says of this new title, “Lindy does what she does best– masterfully blend the personal with the political, pulling anecdotes from the deepest corners of her mind as well as the front page of the paper– er, Twitter feed– to discuss racism, rape, misogyny, climate change, abortion, and Gwyneth Paltrow.” Grab a copy today!
The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton follows the National Book Award Longlisted A Kind of Freedom with an all new novel that explores the depths of women’s relationships—powerful women and marginalized women, healers and survivors.
The Revisioners is a novel about the bonds between mothers and their children, the dangers that upend those bonds. In it, Sexton bridges the lives of two women seperated by nearly one hundred years of time, but both of their stories intersect and parallel each other in startling ways when they begin to forge tenuous relationships with white women near them. Both Ava and Josephine must decide how to move forward and escape the possibly dangerous circumstances they find themselves in a story that ponders generational legacies, the endurance of hope, and the undying promise of freedom.
Reach for this one on our shelves, our booksellers can’t get enough of it! Consuelo calls it, “captivating,” Christine calls it, “excellent,” and Raven praises Wilkerson’s story that lends “grace to these Black conjurers gifted with the power to create growth and the wisdom to pass this on to the next.”
Don’t miss out on a signed copies that we were able to snag at Texas Book Fest this year!
Keep Scrolling Till You Feel Something by McSweeney’s Various Contributors
Just wait till you take a full gander and this beauty. Keep Scrolling Till You Feel Something is decadent volume of gold-trimmed pages that weighs as much as a newborn baby, celebrating the first twenty-one years of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency!
From their bright-eyed and bewildered early stages to the world-weary and bewildered recent days. Keep Scrolling Till You Feel Something is a coming-of-age celebration of the pioneering website, featuring brand-new pieces and classics by some of today’s best humor writers, like Ellie Kemper, Wendy Molyneux, Jesse Eisenberg, Tim Carvell, Karen Chee, Colin Nissan, Megan Amram, John Moe, and many more.
Just wait till you see it, seriously, you’ll want to grab one for yourself and your friends and family and pets!
Little Weirds by Jenny Slate
Little Weirds isn’t your every day, run-of-the-mill essay collection. Inside this new book are spastic thought bubbles on, to name a few, the smell of honeysuckle, a French-kissing rabbit, divorce, emotional horniness, the ghost of a sea caption, and young geraniums in an ancient castle captured on the page for your reading and viewing pleasure. You’re not imagining that last sentence. It’s true.
Jenny Slate’s Little Weirds is — to put it plainly — weird but that’s the kind of thing we love here at BookPeople and we can’t recommend it enough.
MK calls this new title, “an odd endearing collection of thoughts and stories. Sometimes abstract, sometimes linear, and sometimes none of the above; I thoroughly enjoy everything Jenny Slate has to say, even when she’s not saying anything at all.” Take a glimpse into the mind of one of the funniest people around today!
Conversations with RBG by Jeffrey Rosen
Conversations with RBG is the remarkable new biography-in-conversations penned by veteran journalist and law professor, Jeffrey Rosen.
Rosen shares with us the justice’s observations on a variety of topics, and her intellect, compassion, sense of humor, and humanity shine through. The affection they have for each other as friends is evident in their banter and in their shared love for the Constitution—and for opera.
Not only that, Justice Ginsburg discusses the future of Roe v. Wade, her favorite dissents, the cases she would most like to see overruled, the #MeToo movement, how to be a good listener, and how to lead a productive, compassionate life, and of course the future of the Supreme Court itself.
These frank exchanges illuminate the steely determination, self-mastery, and wit that have inspired Americans of all ages to embrace the woman known to all as “Notorious RBG.”
Justice Ginsburg always has something interesting—and often surprising—to say. And while few of us will ever have the opportunity to chat with her face-to-face, Jeffrey Rosen brings us by her side as never before. Be sure to join us on November 14 at 7PM when Rosen stops by the Austin Public Library to discuss and sign his one-of-a-kind biography!
Grit & Grace by Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw is as well-known for his unparalleled accomplishments in the entertainment industry as he is for his boundless energy—he is the embodiment of vitality and success.
But only a decade ago, he found himself struggling with his health. The demands of his meteoric career and life on the road had taken a toll. McGraw came to a crossroads where knew that unless he made his physical health a priority, he would put his personal happiness and professional success at risk.
In Grit & Grace, McGraw shares his transformation story along with encouragement, practical advice and mental approach together with exercise tips to help readers become healthy, strong, and fit in mind and body. Don’t miss out on his story and join us for a riveting conversation on November 8th at 7PM when he stops by the First Baptist Church for a conversation with local fitness guru, Aubrey Marcus. Get your tickets here today!
That’s it for new books this week! We hope you’ve found something good to chew on and add on to your TBR piles and maybe an event or two with us you’d like to pencil in. Either way, we’ll see you next week for another round of new releases to feast on!
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