Lists
by Powell's Staff, June 30, 2023 9:06 AM
We love the summertime. We love reading. We love reading in the summertime. We love yelling about the books we’re most excited to read during the summertime. Which is perfect, because it’s time for our third book preview of the year — the post where Powell’s booksellers get to yell about the summer book releases they can’t wait to see hit the shelves. Go ahead: hit that preorder button. Your future self will thank you.
Jump ahead to: JULY | AUGUST | SEPTEMBER
JULY
by Patrick deWitt
Retired librarian Bob Comet lives a solitary, predictable life surrounded by books and stories. One day, he meets an elderly woman wandering confused and helps her return to the senior center where she lives. He ends up volunteering there and a strange, tender community coheres around him. This is described as a quietly moving novel for fans of John Williams's Stoner, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, or other books about the extraordinariness of ordinary lives. That's definitely me, so I'll be eager to read this! — Claire A.
Join us for our event with Patrick deWitt on July 13 at Powell’s City of Books.
by Arianna Reiche
I was a 'ride operator' (they do NOT like it when you call yourself a carny) at two separate amusement parks in my twenties, so I can speak to the horrors both Adventureland and eerie. I used to feel a particular chill in the mornings and evenings looking at the quiet, empty machinery in the dark, with only tinny fair music or 'robotic child's laugh that's piped into a plastic castle and cannot be turned off' for company. I have been waiting for Arianna Reiche's dark, twisty, appropriately unsettling novel for over a decade. — Michelle C.
by TJ Klune
Oh, my heart. Several of TJ Klune’s popular earlier books are getting much-deserved, glow-up hardcover releases, including the fantastic Green Creek series. Wolfsong, the first in the series, reads almost like a long, loving lyric poem and is, honestly, one of the loveliest romantic stories I’ve ever read. Also, queer werewolf shape-shifters. Need I say more? — Deana R.
by Sarah Rose Etter
This book is such a wonderful heartache. I felt that hovering, winking black hole as I read — felt it grow like a pit in my stomach, even though I wasn't the one being buffeted around by the whims of Silicon Valley and selfish men, corporate greed and bodily needs. Sarah Rose Etter has written an astounding, sharp, deeply intimate book. I've already started recommending it to everyone I know. — Kelsey F.
by Ruth Madievsky
This book has it all: drugs, sex, dive bars, emergency rooms, a missing sister, a romance with a psychic. This debut from Ruth Madievsky promises to be visceral, hilarious, unsettling, and entirely new. I can’t wait to pick it up. — Kelsey F.
Join us for our event with Ruth Madievsky, in conversation with Lydia Kiesling, on August 21 at Powell’s City of Books.
by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi
This book is beautifully bizarre. The subtle eeriness and decadent use of language had me devouring this so fast. How exactly does one learn a language in two weeks by just listening to someone speak it? It’s devious and I love it. — Rose H.
by McKayla Cole
Goblin Mode is wonderfully weird and absolutely essential because, as Coyle explains, “The goblin lifestyle pushes back against the idea that we must be clean and smooth and poreless in order to exist in the world.” We ALL need some of this lifestyle, one in which we learn from mushrooms, snails, and the like to relax and be cozy. This is a perfect gift for your diverse and messy friends and for everyone seeking greater harmony! — Marianne T.
Note: this book ended up coming out early, in June! But we were too excited about it to not include it on this list, even though it isn't technically a July release.
by Colson Whitehead
Returning to the world of Harlem Shuffle, Ray Carney finds himself in a jam: his daughter wants to go to a Jackson 5 concert, but tickets are hard to come by. Sales aren’t the greatest at the furniture store and he’s left behind the stolen goods game. He has a choice to make, and it gets complicated, to say the least. Whitehead takes us to Harlem in the 70s in all its grittiness and upheavals through Carney’s world in this brilliant new novel. — Vicky K.
by Silvia Garcia-Moreno
Absolutely gobsmacked by Moreno-Garcia's ability to crack open the status-quo when it comes to the paranormal. If you loved Brand New Cherry Flavor, you're going to adore Silver Nitrate. This is one of those books that will be cool forever. I'm obsessed. — Stacy Wayne D.
Join us for our event with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, in conversation with Michelle Ruiz Keil, on July 19 at Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing.
by Sara Desai
After reading The Marriage Game series, I was far too excited for another title by Sarah Desai. And she did not disappoint. The protagonist, Simi Chopra, doesn't have a lot of things. But she does have a mountain of student loan debt, a flooded apartment, and willingness to commit a crime to keep her best friend out of jail. Millennial girlies can relate, right? This book has so much to offer — from the instant chemistry the protagonists have to the prologue and epilogue written in his POV. If you’re looking for a quirky, fun, escape of a beach read, then look no further. — Lindsay P.
by Kate Flannery
I love a messy workplace reckoning, and especially if it's also a coming-of-age memoir. American Apparel was so culturally defining in the late 2000s — a brand everyone was wearing (or printing their band logos on), that somehow kept getting creepier (Claudine Ko's interview with Dov Charney came out in 2004, but AA's brand was so progressive, hip, and omnipresent in 2007! How!). I am so excited to dig into the behind-the-scene realities of this workplace with Kate Flannery's insider perspective, especially after reading Heather Havrilesky's recommendation ("This book is a rapid, queasy descent into hipster hell, and I couldn’t get enough of it."). — Michelle C.
by Yume Kitsai
A high-stakes, deep-space whodunnit? Exactly what my summer reading list needs! Eighty elite graduates trained from childhood and handpicked to give birth to a new generation in space far from earth's envrionmental collapse, a lethal bomb that throws their ship off course, and our protagonist - Asuka - who already feels like she doesn't belong. Claustrophobic, poignant, and thrilling! — Sarah R.
by Chuck Tingle
I just want to start this by saying, yes, this is by THAT Chuck Tingle, and no, it’s nothing like his usual fare. Moving on. Camp Damascus is a sharp, funny, and fast-paced story about a young woman finding herself, freeing herself from an oppressive belief system, and (literally) facing her demons. I was given an ARC of this early in the year, read it in one weekend, and have been excitedly talking it up since. — Deana R.
Join us for our event with Chuck Tingle on July 25 at Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing.
by Chloe Gong
We already know Chloe Gong can nail a YA Shakespeare retelling, so I am so excited to see what she does with adult epic fantasy. I love when YA authors grow with their audience, and this Antony and Cleopatra retelling sounds like the PERFECT adult debut. Enemies-to-lovers! Self-destruction! Two arrogant, morally-gray protagonists! I'm ready to have my heart destroyed. — Sophie C.
by B. Dylan Hollis
If you've never seen one of B. Dylan Hollis' videos, you are missing out. His chaotic enthusiasm matches the unique recipes he digs up from antique cookbooks, so too does his delighted surprise when it turns out something tastes fine or even shockingly good. Now it's your turn: 1950s Tomato Soup Cake? 1960s Avocado Pie? 1910s ANZAC Biscuits? Let's go. — Sarah R.
Join us for our event with B. Dylan Hollis on July 27 at Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing.
by Maru Ayase (tr. Haydn Trowell)
The blurb for this reminds me so much of The Vegetarian by Han Kang, one of my all-time favorite novels. Both feature themes of bodily autonomy, gender expectations, and art in a world constantly exerting its control over women. Inspired by a true story but going one step further to blur the lines between fantasy and reality, I'm so excited for Maru Ayase's first translated novel! — Charlotte S.
AUGUST
by Ann Patchett
Anytime an Ann Patchett book is announced, I eagerly await an advanced copy arriving in store mail, and if one doesn't, I'm devastated. I'm happy to report I've had the chance to read Tom Lake early and it’s the Ann Patchett we know and love. Tom Lake is the story of a family reunited on their farm in the early days of the pandemic; the adult daughters of the narrator are eager to hear more details of their mother's past lives and loves. A reminder to all that our parents led full and complicated lives long before we were born. — Bry H.
by Jimin Han
A multi-generational epic; a family curse; an impudent, dead matriarch. The always-right Alexander Chee said, “The Apology is an uncanny high wire act—arch, tender, mercurial.” Chee also said that Jim Han “feels like Iris Murdoch’s heir.” Sign me all the way up. — Kelsey F.
by Edan Lepucki
If there’s one thing worth knowing about me, it’s that I will put down cold hard cash for a new Edan Lepucki this week. Her writing has always been evocative, involved, intimate — stories that you get caught up in, wended through with (often unnerving) emotion. So I cannot wait for Time’s Mouth, a book that combines memories and cults and families and the mythos of California. Give it to me yesterday. — Kelsey F.
For more, read the Powell’s Q&A with Edan Lepucki.
by Lydia Kiesling
Mobility is simultaneously a coming-of-age story (or as close to coming-of-age as we elder Millennials can get) and a meditation on the state of the world, and the systems that we allow (or encourage) to run it. It’s about finding your place in the world just as the world seems to spin out of control. That alone makes this novel an interesting and worthwhile project, but what makes this book stand out, and what will captivate – and ultimately surprise – readers, is the skill with which Lydia Kiesling layers the wider vision in on the compelling and skillfully observed story of Bunny Glenn. This is a book with a broad appeal and an important message. I hope everyone reads it. — Keith M.
Join us for our event with Lydia Kiesling, in conversation with Omar El Akkad, on August 1 at Powell’s City of Books.
by Alicia Thompson
With Love, From Cold World is about two coworkers at a failing, beloved, non-trademarked theme park in Orlando (the theme is "winter," which already has won me over). Lauren is all business, Asa is all fun, and they have to overcome their ongoing rivalry to come up with a wacky-yet-grounded solution to save their beloved anomaly of a workplace. And maybe... sparks fly, even in artificially cold conditions?? More like Winter Wonder-stan, I am so excited to have a legitimate excuse to read a great book with snowy kissing months before the holiday rom-coms arrive. —Michelle C.
by Elizabeth Acevedo
I love Elizabeth Acevedo's books for young adults, so I can't wait to read her first novel for adults! Family Lore follows the women of the Marte family, spanning past and present through the voices from multiple generations. Kiese Laymon, author of Long Division and Heavy, says “Only Elizabeth Acevedo could make an epic feel so intimate, so perfectly crafted and tightly drawn...This is how stories should be made." I'll be ready for August 1! — Claire A.
by Rebekah Bergman
I loved The Museum of Human History so much! The book hops through time and follows a collection of characters in a coastal town that's attracted shiny biomedical companies trying to rush anti-aging procedures to market, mostly staying in the decades before and after a twin girl falls into a coma and stops aging. It's a very literary, heartbreaking, speculative page-turner about the tragedy of memory, and the desire to hold onto the best moments in your life, and the ways life stories are written and re-written as we move through time. I can't believe this is Rebekah Bergman's debut (there are so many sentences that made me gasp, and so many that made me cry), and I'm so excited to read everything she writes. — Michelle C.
by Ben Purkert
The Men Can't Be Saved initially pulled me in with great title, and everything I've learned about it since has only gotten me more pumped for Ben Pukert's debut. A junior copywriter is on top of the world when his tagline goes viral, then he loses his job, and then maybe obsesses over his old job while spiraling (with the help of a terrible person / exec). I'm already on board for most novels that appropriately weight work (so much of a life is work!), and the phenomenal Hanif Abdurraqib described it as "an experience that transcends the act of reading fiction." Let's goooo! — Michelle C.
by Jacqueline Carey
I've been waiting twenty years for this book, so to say I'm excited is an enormous understatement. Kushiel's Dart impacted me profoundly when I read it as a teenager. I adored protagonist Phedre no Delauney, both her strength and vulnerability, her cleverness and passion, and the world of Terre d'Ange where everyone is free to "love as thou wilt." I also fell hard for Phedre's stoic protector Joscelin Verreuil and now (finally!) we get to experience the story from his point of view! I'm thrilled for us, the original fans, but I'm also so stoked for new readers to find this series. — Carly J.
Join us for our event with Jacqueline Carey, in conversation with Brent Weeks, on August 9 at Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing.
by Emily H. Wilson
I love a modern take on mythology, but the Sumerian variety has been hard to come by, so I am super excited about this book on Inanna and Gilgamesh, the first in a planned trilogy! It's set about 5,000 years in the past in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, in what is now Iraq, but was then called Sumeria. It features Annunaki sky gods, demi-gods, humans, and cool demon types. One of the associated myths of the area, "The Descent of Inanna," is one of my favorite stories ever, so I'm pretty jazzed to learn more Sumerian mythology. The author is a really good writer and journalist; I feel Inanna's in good hands. — Jennifer R.
by Alexandra Chang
For months, I've had "!!!!!!!!!" written as shorthand for my excitement for Alexandra Chang's short story collection (a follow-up to one of my favorite novels, Days of Distraction). The stories in Tomb Sweeping promise to be about connection and loneliness, loyalties and voids, and (in the words of Raven Leilani) "the wonder and volatility of becoming." Incredible! I will not rest until I have this book in my hands. — Michelle C.
Join us for our event with Hilary Leichter and Alexandra Chang, in conversation with Katherine D. Morgan, on September 12 at Powell’s City of Books.
by James McBride
It is so rare to see stories with well-written Black and Jewish characters working along side-by-side, and I honestly can't wait to dig into this one. Full of mystery and set against the backdrop of a 1970s small town on the East Coast, McBride's newest novel is poised to explore what it means to live outside the boundaries of white, Christian hegemony, and how when the going gets rough, it is love and community that save us. — Michelle F.
by Emily Habeck
Reading the back of this book felt like I was reading the back of a Murakami collection of short stories for the first time, and I'm predicting Shark Heart will rearrange my brain the same way that one did. 'My new husband is turning into a shark over the course of nine months' is a phenomenal hook (no fish pun intended!), and there is no way we're getting out of this genre-blending debut without staring newfound emotional knowledge straight in the eye; without wistfully considering the past; without acknowledging that humans, like great white sharks, need to keep swimming or perish. — Michelle C.
by Lauren Beukes
A new Lauren Beukes is always such a treat and Bridge promises to be a dark, twisty, brain-altering, alternate-universe-y delight. Add in some spice — a grieving daughter searching for her mother, a “maverick neuroscientist,” and that mother’s “dreamworm” — and oh, man. This one is going to be good. — Kelsey F.
by Nick Cutter
I am obsessed with haunted YouTube videos. Combine this with the DIY twist and you’ve made the perfect horror novel for me. Fair warning: this book is twisted and not for the faint of heart. Parts of this book will stay with me forever. — Rose H.
by Julio Vincent Gambuto
There is a relentless slew of books about productivity, for better or worse. Please Unsubscribe, Thanks! has me intrigued by its focus on how the pandemic shutdown allowed for millions to collectively step out of the rat race and shift our energies towards social change and values. Gambuto offers a way to resist "returning to normal," when that normal was never what was best for people to begin with. — Charlotte S.
by Noelle Crooks
When I saw that Crooks was the Director of Lifestyle Content & Brand Experience for The Hollis Co (aka, the infamous Rachel Hollis) before writing this scathing debut on the ugly side of being a girlboss, I knew it was a debut I had to get my hands on. — Charlotte S.
by Daniel Kraus
Got thalassophobia? Well, you do now. Choking, seering, harrowing, and tender-at-times, Whalefall is the 127 Hours of the sea but oh, so much worse. If summer of 2023 wasn't clear enough, please stay out of the ocean. It's angry. — Stacy Wayne D.
by Lan Samantha Chang
Ghostly and sparse, this career-defining collection is pockmarked by the absences and silences of its characters; Chang's prose feels translucent to the point of disintegration here, capturing with eerie omniscience the fraught and often incommunicable experience gap between immigrant parents and their children, as well as the loss and grief that comes from leaving what is known behind in favor of a hopeful, imaginary future and self. Tremendous and bone-deep devastating. — Sitara G.
by Tom Ireland
Approachably readable for young adults and experts alike, a vital look at a renewed field of medicine with connections to the Pacific Northwest: bacteria-consuming viruses as 'phage therapy.' Learn what connects France, Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia to our own coastline together in the fight against antimicrobial resistance, both past and present. A must for biotechnology aficionados. — Toms H.G.
by Laura Thalassa
I'm always happy when an indie author's work gets picked up by a publisher, and BookTok darling Laura Thalassa (also known for her Bargainer series) is no exception! I cannot wait for this dark fantasy romance to hit the shelves with a shiny new cover. — Charlotte S.
by Cleo Qian
Cleo Qian's book of debut short stories has an all-caps title, which makes sense because the natural reaction to learning anything about her work is enthusiastic, slightly feral screaming. The publisher copy is: "The electric, unsettling, and often surreal stories in LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO explore the alienated, technology-mediated lives of restless Asian and Asian American women today," and Ling Ma called it "perfectly askew." This lights up my entire brain! LGLGLG's stories include a supernatural karaoke machine, uncanny social experiments, dating sims, and a teen with unsettling visions after double eyelid surgery. I'm struggling to focus on anything else until I'm able to finish this startling, precise, and viscerally true book. — Michelle C.
by Taylor Byas
I am in love with Byas's debut collection of poems that reads as a love story to Chicago, Black women, and being alive. Some of the lines in this book are so exquisite that I thought about tattooing them on my skin. I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times made me feel seen, and to be seen by another Black woman like Byas makes this life feel worth it. — Katherine M.
by Hilary Leichter
How do we love and be loved in a world at the mercy of time? How do we hold each other in an existence as fragile as ours? Terrace Story takes up these enormous questions in a sweeping, dreamlike story about a young family living in a cramped apartment who wake one day to find a beautiful terrace hiding in their closet. This discovery and its ongoing presence set off a chain of events that ripples the fabric of time, space, and love. Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Trust, calls it "beautifully unclassifiable...[not] a novel you merely read; it’s a book you inhabit." I look forward to inhabiting it August 29! — Claire A.
Join us for our event with Hilary Leichter and Alexandra Chang, in conversation with Katherine D. Morgan, on September 12 at Powell’s City of Books.
SEPTEMBER
by Zadie Smith
This historical novel from living legend Zadie Smith promises to be as involving, beautifully written, and heart-cracking as her other novels. Set in 1873 and focused on a legal trial, The Fraud is a story filled with and complicated by famous novelists and class issues, hypocrisy and deceit. I’ve seen the word “mesmerizing” bandied about a bit, which, when used to describe Smith’s writing, has me incredibly excited for this sure-to-be-a-new-favorite novel. — Kelsey F.
by Maria Bamford
If you aren't yet familiar with Maria Bamford's particular brand of incredibly empathetic, brave, and wonderfully weird comedy from her Netflix show Lady Dynamite or any of her stand-up specials, you are in for an incredible treat. When I learned she had a memoir coming out, I was ELATED and I know it's going to be just as life affirming and ingeniously strange as everything else she's done. Having lived through disordered eating, inpatient psychiatric care, and more, Bamford explores the comfort of rigid belief systems, the difficulty of being in the world (and, sometimes, wanting to be in it), and the drive to keep going. September 5 can't come soon enough. — Claire A.
by Myriam Gurba
This "informal sociology of creeps" from Myriam Gurba — the widely praised author of the coming-of-age memoir Mean and the internet's (and my) favorite review of American Dirt — promises to be whip-smart, unflinching, and wryly funny. I'm simultaneously adding this to my TBR and preemptively adding it to my Top Five list for 2023. — Tove H.
by Laura Picklesimer
Absolutely strikes me as a thriller featuring women's wrongs, with a bit of Layne Fargo’s They Never Learn's entitled frat boys getting (justly?) murdered and the depravity of Eliza Clark’s Boy Parts. Add to the mix that the main character believes she finally found the perfect boyfriend... I for one can't wait for that bubble to pop. — Charlotte S.
by Gavin Francis
We are tired — we deserve rest. Our bodies deserve time for recovery, for convalescence. This small, approachable book offers and affirms that we deserve exactly that. — Charlotte S.
by Ben Lerner
This is my first time picking up anything by Ben Lerner, but it absolutely won’t be the last! The poet, novelist, and critic strikes an electrifying balance between the personal and the universal, the academic and the sensuous, the brain and the gut. These poems seem to tightly spiral in on themselves while simultaneously unraveling, outlining both the awe and fear that language can inspire. — Kai B.
For more, read the Powell’s Interview with Ben Lerner.
by Lauren Groff
With a title like The Vaster Wilds and with a cover like that, by an author like Lauren Groff? Do you need to know more? The Vaster Wilds promises to be heartbreaking and heart-clenching and, I am sure, written in Groff’s reliably magnificent prose. — Kelsey F.
For more, read Lauren Groff’s original essay: All My Cruddy Jobs.
by Mona Awad
Mona Awad is an instant-buy author for me, and that honor is very well deserved. Her newest novel, Rouge, promises a gothic horror blend of fairytales, beauty standards, and mommy issues. I absolutely adore her writing in all its strangeness and the biting satirical critiques she delivers on womanhood. It's so fucked up in the very best of ways. — Charlotte S.
Join us for our event with Mona Awad, in conversation with Leni Zumas, on September 21 at Powell’s City of Books.
by James Frankie Thomas
If the teen friendship isn't all-consuming, is it even real? Idlewild centers on Fay and Nell, teens attending an artsy Quaker school in Manhattan in the early aughts. Their bond is formed the morning of 9/11 — and tightened by backstage theatre kid antics, AIM fanfiction, and endless inside jokes and shared yearnings. This novel promises a dark, funny, devastating picture of that friendship and dissolution from all angles, wrapped in a campus novel, and sprinkled with "coming of age in the second Bush presidency." I am EAGERLY anticipating James Frankie Thomas's debut! — Michelle C.
Edited by Molly Llewellyn and Kristel Buckley
Peach Pit promises us "women at their most monstrous," which is more than enough to convince me, but let me name drop just a few of the contributing authors of this short story collection: Alison Rumfitt (Tell Me I'm Worthless), Amanda Leduc (Disfigured), and Sarah Rose Etter (Ripe, The Book of X)… convinced yet? — Charlotte S.
by Marisa Meltzer
The chokehold that Glossier had on all of us cannot be overstated. This "bombshell expose" offers us an inside look at the millennial-pink world of Glossier with interviews from previous employees and even the girlboss Emily herself. — Charlotte S.
by Kaori Fujino (tr. Kendall Heitzman)
Nails and Eyes is unsettling and creepy in all my favorite literary horror ways. At 112 pages, this slim collection translated from Japanese features the titular novella and two other unnerving short stories with a feminist twist! — Charlotte S.
by Em X. Liu
Queer Hamlet with an AI Horatio, in a locked-room sci-fi thriller. I have never been so immediately on board in my entire life. — Sophie C.
by Danny Caine
Danny Caine's How to Resist Amazon and Why — first published as a 15-page zine in 2019 and now in its second edition as a full-fledged book — was a game changer for me as a consumer and continues to be an absolute gift for me as a bookseller. I often refer to it as, "the hours-long conversation I wish I could have with every customer, in book form," so my bookseller heart leapt with joy when I heard he had something new in the works, about something very dear to said bookseller heart: bookstores. Caine is one of the industry's most passionate and vocal advocates, and his forthcoming book is sure to give readers the info and inspiration they need to become advocates themselves. (He of course gets an extra gold star for teaming up again with Portland's own Microcosm Publishing!) — Tove H.
by Anne Enright
Anne Enright has a new multi-generational epic about family, and poetry, and betrayal, and love. She’s never written a bad sentence, get this book to luxuriate in the work of one of our greatest living novelists. — Michelle C.
For more, read the Powell’s Interview with Anne Enright.
by John Scalzi
I always get excited when I hear there’s a new John Scalzi book. In this one, we have a super-secret society of super villains, unionized dolphins, talking spy cats, a hidden volcanic lair, and a very befuddled substitute teacher trying to make sense of it all. — Deana R.
by Ava Reid
Dark academia that critiques the way institutions both dismiss young women while simultaneously preying on them? Set in a crumbling old manor by the sea? With a brooding academic rival you reluctantly have to trust? This snippet of promo copy alone convinced me: an unflinching indictment of institutions that sacrifice young girls on the altar of men’s “genius.” — Charlotte S.
by Ashley Shew
An amazing manifesto by the individual who coined the word technoableism — the "belief that technology is a ‘solution’ for disability." Shew's manifesto challenges us to reconsider the idea that technology will save us all (but especially the disabled), rather than focusing on making society itself more accessible. I'm especially excited to read about the connections between disability and space travel. — Charlotte S.
by C Pam Zhang
I've been screaming about Land of Milk and Honey for months — How Much of These Hills Is Gold is so good, the slightest hint of a new C Pam Zhang novel sent me into a frenzy. Her latest is about a chef who gets the opportunity of a climate-apocalypse lifetime — moving to one of the last truly habitable places on Earth, the side of a mountain above the pestilent worldwide smog that is choking out crops and animals, to cook for the ultra-wealthy retreating to the enclave. It's a meditation on appetite, on merit, on resilience, on identity and inheritance (see: the weight of the expectations and experiences of everyone's parents), on evolution, on planning and chaos, on the future we might be able to build. And, it's a love letter to food and craft and pleasure, in the face of overwhelming bleakness. I loved every word. — Michelle C.
Join us for our event with C Pam Zhang on September 27 at Powell’s City of Books.
by Zoraida Cordova
Flippin' my fins may not get me far, but baby, I'm flippin' 'em. Mermaids are back! Thank Poseidon. — Stacy Wayne D.
÷ ÷ ÷
For more summer reading recommendations, check out our Midyear Roundup 2023, as well as the First and Second editions of the Powell's Book Preview.
|