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Big Books of the Week

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner)

Missing Persons by James Patterson & Adam Hamdy (Grand Central)

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid (Putnam)

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata (Avon)

These books and others publishing the week of January 29, 2024 are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Four LibraryReads and five Indie Next picks publish this week:

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata (Avon)

“Rhodes, the ultimate silver fox grump, and bright ray of sunshine Aurora, are complete opposites in many ways. This gentle and sweet love story is built through action as the characters learn to trust each other. Including Rhodes' son, Amos, in the story adds a level of care between the couple by being the first thing they both bond over.”—Jordan Abitz, Pottawatomie Wabaunsee Regional Library, KS

Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate (Poisoned Pen Pr.)

“A young woman died in a car accident while her brother Grant, who was driving, survived, along with another passenger. What really happened that evening is a mystery. Why did Grant wait so long to call for help—and what was his sister so angry about? Readers looking for a page- turning narrative with a strong sense of place will find this compulsive thriller a great read.”—Carri Genovese,Indianapolis Public Library, IN

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner)

“Ernest is struggling to write his second book. He hits the jackpot, so to speak, when a murder is committed on a train hosting the literary festival he is attending. He now has his new topic and narrates this murder mystery. Full of quick dialogue, clever clues, and odd characters, this off-beat offering will be much fun for the right reader.”—Crystal Faris, Kansas City Public Library, MO

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“A must-read for classic mystery lovers, where all the characters, suspects, and victims are mystery authors, agents, or publicists. Brilliantly written, funny, and quirky, it’s a book lover’s book you won’t want to miss.”—Nancy McFarlane, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, SC

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid (Putnam)

“Millie is a 24-yr-old RA in a dorm of typical college girls.All she wants is to get through her delayed senior year, start saving for a home to call her own and find a good job for when she graduates. When she makes some increasingly bad choices, she puts all of that in jeopardy and has to face the fact that she may not like the person she is becoming.”—Linda Quinn, LibraryReads Ambassador

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“No one writes class and social hierarchy like Kiley Reid. In Come and Get It, Reid turns her eye to a college campus, digging into all the petty drama, backhanded compliments, and codeswitching. The result is an engrossing, explosive story.”—Lindsay Lynch, Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN

Three additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili (Riverhead; LJ starred review)

“Set in war-torn Tbilisi, Georgia, this is a story of love, loss, and sacrifice. Somehow, Vardiashvili captures the anguish of losing one’s home with glimmers of hope and humor.”—Pat Rudebusch, Orinda Books, Orinda, CA

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers (Redhook: Orbit)

“Full of intrigue and mystery, The City of Stardust is a whimsical adult fantasy novel with intricate worldbuilding and beautiful, immersive writing. This book is perfect for the readers who love to get lost in a whole, different world.”—Sara Canelon, Adventures by the Book, San Diego, CA

Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin (Atria)

“Emily Austin is the author for lesbian stories that explore mental health issues! Her writing is so funny, and relatable, I want to absolutely devour every word she’s written. I love Enid and I know queer women everywhere will too!”—Hannah Cloutier, The Bookery Manchester, Manchester, NH

In The Media

People’s book of the week is Come and Get It by Kiley Reid (Putnam). Also getting attention are Good Material by Dolly Alderton (Knopf), and Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili (Riverhead; LJ starred review). A “New in Historical fiction” section highlights Jeanne Mackin’s Picasso's Lovers (Berkley), Jenni L Walsh’s Unsinkable (Harper Muse), and Avery Cunningham’s The Mayor of Maxwell Street (Hyperion Avenue). 

The “Picks” section spotlights Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, based on the book by Donald Miller, and The End We Start From, based on the book by Megan Hunter. 

There is a feature on figure skater Gracie Gold and her new memoir, Outofshapeworthlessloser (Crown). Also, Crystal Hefner has a new memoir about life at the playboy mansion, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself (Grand Central). Plus, recipes from Ali Rosen, 15 Minute Meals: Truly Quick Recipes that Don’t Taste like Shortcuts (Mango), Molly Baz, More Is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen (Clarkson Potter), and Chrissy Teigen, Chrissy & Dave Dine Out.

Reviews

NYT reviews Good Material by Dolly Alderton (Knopf): “In Good Material, as in all of her writing, Alderton excels at portraying nonromantic intimate relationships with tenderness and authenticity”; How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica (Tin House): “At its core, How We Named the Stars is a touching story about a transformative queer romance”; Errand into the Maze: The Life and Works of Martha Graham by Deborah Jowitt (Farrar): “A definitive biography of this woman who lived until 96 and spoke in epigrams, undulations and billowing fabric might be impossible to contain between one set of covers, but Errand Into the Maze is a distinguished biography: its description rich, its author’s rigor unquestionable”; Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti (Farrar): "Maybe this book is simply a fresh and unusual way of organizing one’s unhappiness. But as Faulkner put it, in a 1950 letter, only vegetables are happy"; Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford (Pamela Dorman: Viking): “Fans of The Great British Baking Show will appreciate Ford’s many nods and winks to its formula — and find themselves engaged in a minor struggle: Do I keep reading to find out what happens next or do I start baking that delicious-sounding rhubarb and custard drizzle cake?”

NYT also reviews Come and Get It by Kiley Reid (Putnam): “With her perceptive eye and ear, Reid imbues her novel with the stuff, literally and figuratively, of life. Her characters define themselves by what they have consumed, what they covet and how they react to what other people have.” NPR also weighs in: “It is not an upbeat view of higher education, but despite the fact that the story is fictional, the way it looks at more mundane parts of day-to-day life at the kind of school so many people actually attend but rarely read about makes it feel true…” The Guardian also reviews: “All this spying serves as good fodder for a sequence of sitcom-like pranks and hijinks; Reid is a talented comic writer. But it also raises deeper questions about how we view the lives of other people, as material for our own consumption.”

Washington Post reviews Lovers in Auschwitz: A True Story by Keren Blankfeld (Little, Brown): “But even those who disagree with the authorial choices made in Lovers in Auschwitz will surely find much in their story inspiring. Zippi and David are both lovingly rendered”; The Fine Art of Literary Fist-Fighting by Lee Gutkind (Yale Univ. Pr.): “Gutkind is at his best in this book when he grudgingly becomes the type of memoirist that he usually writes about. The moments when he stops to look back on his own evolving perspective and investment are truly compelling — reflecting the continuing intellectual curiosity of someone who cares enough about this field to allow himself to change with it.”

Briefly Noted

The CALIBA Golden Poppy Awards are announced. Publishers Weekly has coverage. 

Scotland’s Highland Book Prize shortlist is announced. Publishing Perspectives has details.

Former employees have been charged with stealing $34 million from the founder of Tin House Books. NBC has the story.

NYT previews 17 new books for February. 

CrimeReads shares “15 Speculative Crime Novels Coming Out in 2024,” and suggests 10 new books for the week.

People reveals details from Rebel Wilson’s forthcoming memoir, Rebel Rising, due out from S. & S. on April 2.

Whoopi Goldberg announces a forthcoming memoir, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me, due out from Blackstone on May 7. Entertainment Weekly has the story. 

People shares an excerpt from A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown's Most Shocking Crime by Casey Sherman (Sourcebooks), due out February 13. 

FoxNews previews Jared Cohen’s forthcoming Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House (S. & S.), also due out February 13. 

T&C offers “A Reading List for the 2024 Oscar Best Picture Nominees.”

NYT explores the new photography book, Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed & Fuel the American South by Kate Medley (Bitter Southerner). 

NPR writes about a secret shelf of banned books that are thriving at a Texas school.

Authors On Air

CBS Sunday Morning remembers Charles Osgood, longtime anchor of the program and author of Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack: A Boyhood Year During World War II (Hachette), and Funny Letters from Famous People (Crown). 

Bustle previews Prime Video’s Expats, based on Janice Y. K. Lee’s, The Expatriates (Penguin Books).

USA Today fact-checks Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, based on the book by Donald Miller. 

Michele Norris, Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity (S. & S.), visits Stephen Colbert tonight.

Tabitha Brown, I Did a New Thing: 30 Days to Living Free (Morrow), will be on GMA today.

Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election (Twelve), appear on CBS Mornings.

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