Tuesday’s New Releases
The best books of the week. . . in my opinion, at least. Not to mention that these are the best books in my opinion that are also big books from big publishers. For now. As I continue to post regularly, I may have a week of best books in translation, or best books from small and independent presses (NB: Independent does NOT mean self published, not in my corner of the world; it means outside of the Big Five houses in NYC).
Today, though, I bring you five stellar titles that come out TODAY, May 23, 2023, and if just one of you buys just one of these based on my recommendation I will be delighted.
The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor
As we redefine notions of family we redefine friends, too. Are they people we know platonically? Sexually? Both/And? Taylor, a brilliant stylist, should gain many readers with his second novel about graduate students in Iowa. Like so many bumper cars, sometimes screaming in delight, sometimes steering directly into trouble, Seamus, Ivan, Fatima, and Noah careen around their environs and, eventually, know it’s time to go out and careen around in other places.
Women We Buried, Women We Burned by Rachel Louise Snyder
Snyder, an acclaimed writer and journalist, showed us in No Visible Bruises that whether we ignore it completely or sanitize it with phrases like “domestic violence,” the abuse and murder of women and girls around our nation exists. In her powerful new memoir, Snyder peels back the trauma of her own early life to explain how she wound up traveling the world and speaking to people who had lived through the worst horrors before coming home to a surprise reckoning.
As a Marine, Ackerman served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he’s written about deployment in previous novels. Here, however, he adds to his work on his core subject, which is the meaning and makeup of the United States of America. Narrator Martin Neumann, an academic, has taken up residence at an esteemed man’s Virginia estate, but not everything is what it seems in this particular paradise, especially that esteemed man’s youthfulness.
Forget your Thelma and Louise. Meet Florida and Dios, ex-cellmates at an Arizona prison, where Dios spends much of her time discrediting Florida, who wants everyone to believe she got a bad break. When these two frenemies instead get to break out, they wind up chased by Officer Lobos, whose ex-husband is chasing her, and this provides Pochoda (These Women and Wonder Valley) with the chance to chase ideas about who and when humans become predators and prey.
Why Fathers Cry at Night by Kwame Alexander
If I tried to describe Alexander, it would take up the rest of this newsletter. He’s sui generis, a man with beauty in his soul and brilliance in his work. His latest book combines “poems, letters, recipes, and rememberances” in a memoir that tracks his own life while focusing on the particular challenges and tragedies Black men face as sons, partners, husbands, fathers, stepfathers, and more.