New Book Releases: September 29, 2020
By: Angela Lashbrook
Tags: Culture, Literature, Fiction, Reading, Books

A DEADLY EDUCATION, Naomi Novik. From the author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver, a new fantasy about a young magician with a talent for mass destruction must ingratiate herself to powerful other classmates at her magical school. In a starred review, Bookpage wrote, “A Deadly Education will cement Naomi Novik’s place as one of the greatest and most versatile fantasy writers of our time.” Bookshop.

BURNING ROSES, S. L. Huang. Now middle-aged, Red Riding Hood and The Archer are tired and done with fairy tales, but when deadly sunbirds begin decimating the countryside where they live, they must take up arms together once again. Bookshop.

BESTIARY, K-Ming Chang. In this multi-generational fabulist epic, a girl wakes up with the tiger’s tail after her mother tells her the story of a tiger spirit who takes refuge in women’s bodies. “The novel’s portrait of motherhood stayed with me long after I put it down,” writes The New York Times. Longlisted for the Center For Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Aggregated critical reviews, Bookshop.

JUST LIKE YOU, Nick Hornby. A middle-aged, divorced schoolteacher and mother falls in love with a 22-year-old who works in a butcher shop. “ [A] charming, funny, touching, and relevant comedy,” writes The Boston Globe. Aggregated critical reviews, Bookshop.

JACK, Marilynne Robinson. The latest entry in Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series set in Gilead, Iowa, in which the son of a minister falls in love with a high school teacher. Aggregated critical reviews, Bookshop.

THE CONSTANT RABBIT, Jasper Fford. In the near future, 1.2 million human-sized, anthropomorphized rabbits live in England. When a rabbit family moves into a human village, all but one human family depart, forcing the rabbit family and the remaining human family to question everything they thought they knew about their country and their species. Bookshop.

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, Matt Haig. A woman stumbles upon a magical library where different books catalog your life if you’d made different choices, compelling her to determine what she really wants. Read an excerpt here. Bookshop.

THE END OF THE DAY, Bill Clegg. Fifty-year old secrets resurface and change the lives of seemingly disconnected characters flung across the United States. “A masterly story of an attempt at righting the misunderstandings of the past,” writes The Boston Globe. Read an excerpt here. Aggregated critical reviews, Bookshop.

THE TALENTED MISS FARWELL, Emily Gray Tedrowe. An utterly delightful novel about a small-town accountant with an addiction to buying art — who will do whatever it takes to continue her habit. Read my review here. In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly called it a “zany, perfectly executed” novel: “Tedrowe does a spectacular job of demonstrating the mindset of a character who justifies her criminal activity while believing she’s ultimately good.” Bookshop.

TIES THAT TETHER, Jane Igharo. When a Nigerian-Canadian falls in love with a white man, she worries that the interracial relationship will compromise her Nigerian identity. Bookshop.

THE GIRL AND THE GODDESS, Nikita Gill. A young girl grows up in post-partition India in this illustrated novel told in verse. Bookshop.

UNSEEN CITY, Amy Shearn. A self-identified “librarian spinster” becomes obsessed with a library patron’s research project on a haunted house. Bookshop.