Paperback Picks
It’s almost February, which means bookstores will be celebrating two major events: Black History Month and Valentine’s Day.
This month’s most-anticipated new paperbacks throw the spotlight on important Black authors and thinkers, and there’s also plenty of room for love as the already-booming romance genre kicks into high gear for its biggest holiday of the year.
“Supersonic” by Thomas Kohnstamm (Counterpoint, $18.95). The follow-up to local author Kohnstamm’s great debut novel, “Lake City,” is a cross-generational narrative spanning the history of Seattle, with narrative threads pulling together many of the most important moments in our city’s story.
“Last Seen” by Judith Giesberg (Simon & Schuster, $20). Giesberg explores one of America’s worst atrocities: the separation of families in slave auctions. Subtitled “The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families,” Giesberg’s nonfiction account tells the story of freed slaves who spent their lives trying to find the loved ones who were ripped away from them.
“Death of the Author” by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow Paperbacks, $19.99). Okorafor’s latest novel stars a young Nigerian American author whose sci-fi novel becomes a huge, runaway success that could alter the future of human civilization. Alternating between the novelist’s life and chapters of her novel, “Death of the Author” is a kaleidoscopic tribute to storytelling.
“Breathing Out” by Whitney Parnell (Mascot Books, $23.95). Subtitled “Ruminations of a Millennial Black Woman,” this memoir-manifesto explores systemic racism, allyship and the daily cost of living life in modern America as a Black woman.
“Junie” by Erin Crosby Eckstine (Ballantine, $20). Set on an Alabama plantation just before the Civil War, “Junie” is about a 16-year-old slave who dreams of freedom and mourns the death of her older sister. When the plantation is swept up in preparation for a wedding, Junie hatches a plan for liberation.
“Say You’ll Remember Me” by Abby Jimenez (Forever, $18.99). A sexy veterinarian seems like the perfect man until he opens his stupid mouth and irritates our heroine in the latest novel from this New York Times bestselling romance author.
“Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die” by Greer Stothers (Titan Books, $19.99). This gay fantasy romance brings an awkward sorcerer and a failure of a knight together through a prophecy that could ultimately kill them both. But why kill when you could kiss instead?
“How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates” by Shailee Thompson (Gallery Books, $18). A boring speed-dating event ends with a prospective date’s grisly murder, and a young woman has to figure out who did it before the killer strikes again in this funny cross between a romantic comedy and a slasher film.
“Love and Other Brain Experiments” by Hannah Brohm (Atria, $19). Two competitive neuroscientists must pretend to be dating in order to attend a prestigious conference. But when one of the neuroscientists discovers the conference has been convened by her ex-boyfriend, everything gets a little more complicated.
“When the Moon Hits Your Eye” by John Scalzi (Tor Books, $18.99). Some sci-fi novels are nothing more than a thought experiment meant to explore the ramifications of one big idea. The idea in Scalzi’s latest novel is “What would happen if the moon suddenly turned into cheese?” Scalzi wins the reader over by taking that admittedly silly premise very seriously, exploring every angle of the daft concept.
“The Quiet Librarian” by Allen Eskens (Mulholland, $19.99). After a Minnesota librarian’s best friend is murdered, long-buried secrets from her past come to light. She’s revealed as a notorious soldier in the Bosnian war, and someone from those blood-soaked days could be targeting her in the name of vengeance.
“Patriot” by Alexei Navalny (Vintage, $21). Any politician who dares to run against Vladimir Putin in Russia is by definition brave. But Navalny survived a near-deadly poisoning attempt in 2020 to write his own story with characteristic dry wit and inspiring confidence, making him a true hero. Navalny died in a Russian prison in February 2024. Later that year, Knopf published his memoirs, making him a legend.
“Disappoint Me” by Nicola Dinan (Dial Press Trade Paperback, $18). A trans woman makes a New Year’s resolution to try dating straight men in Dinan’s funny and moving novel. Can a life of “good old-fashioned heteronormativity” be in the cards for her?
“The Woodchipper” by Joe Ollmann (Drawn & Quarterly, $25). Ollmann is an award-winning Canadian cartoonist, and “The Woodchipper” collects his latest short stories. The best story in the volume, “Nestled All Snug,” is about a bookseller who is accidentally locked in her store’s bathroom after closing on Christmas Eve.
“Trad Wife” by Saratoga Schaefer (Crooked Lane Books, $19.99). Finally, someone has written a horror novel about the “tradwife” influencer phenomenon, in which women adopt picture-perfect farming lifestyles and post heavily edited videos about it to Instagram. Schaefer’s book features a tradwife who goes to demonic lengths to curate the perfect life for her followers.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com ’
