Riot Headline The Best Books of 2024

New Releases and More for August 25, 2020

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This week, Liberty and Patricia discuss Winter Counts, Spellbound, The Great Offshore Grounds, and more great books.

This episode is sponsored by TBR, Book Riot’s subscription service offering reading recommendations personalized to your reading life, MIRA Books and Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks, and Impersonation by Heidi Pitlor, now available from Algonquin Books.

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BOOKS DISCUSSED ON THE SHOW:

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden 

Spellbound by Bishakh Som

The Great Offshore Grounds by Vanessa Veselka

Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig

The Comeback by Ella Berman

Don’t Tell Me to Relax: Emotional Resilience in the Age of Rage, Feels, and Freak-Outs by Ralph De La Rosa

The New Wilderness by Diane Cook

His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham

WHAT WE’RE READING:

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century by Alice Wong

Annie and the Wolves by Andromeda Romano-Lax

MORE BOOKS OUT THIS WEEK:

Ink and Sigil by Kevin Hearne 

Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar

Slum Virgin by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Frances Riddle

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

Aria: A Novel by Nazanine Hozar

Squeeze Me: A novel by Carl Hiaasen 

The Book of Unconformities: Speculations on Lost Time by Hugh Raffles

At Times: New and Selected Poems by Brooke Horvath

Pluses and Minuses: How Math Solves Our Problems by Stefan Buijsman

Here to Stay by Adriana Herrera

Entwined by A.J. Rosen

The Butterfly Effect: Insects and the Making of the Modern World by Edward D. Melillo

Summer: A Novel (Seasonal Quartet) by Ali Smith

The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs by Jason Diamond

The Frightened Ones: A novel by Dima Wannous, Elisabeth Jaquette (translator)

Tales from the Ant World by Edward O. Wilson

Count Luna by Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Jane B. Greene (translator)

Death of a Telenovela Star by Teresa Dovalpage

You Lucky Dog by Julia London

The Erratics: A Memoir by Vicki Laveau-Harvie

Deepfakes: The Coming Infocalypse by Nina Schick

They Called Us Enemy: Expanded Edition by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, Harmony Becker

An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schlansky, Jackie Smith (translator)

Farewell, Ghosts by Nadia Terranova, Ann Goldstein (translator)

Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can by Varshini Prakash and Guido Girgenti

The Companion by Katie Alender 

The Exiles: A Novel by Christina Baker Kline

Song of the Court by Katy Farina

Hidden (The Texas Murder Files Book 1) by Laura Griffin

The Hierarchies: A Novel by Ros Anderson

The Butcher’s Daughter: A Foundlings Novel (The Foundlings) by Wendy Corsi Staub 

Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It by Erin Brockovich

The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo, Yumiko Yamakazi (translator)

Ghost Flames: Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950-1953 by Charles J. Hanley 

The Mother Code by Carole Stivers

American Dreams: Portraits & Stories of a Country by Ian Brown

Where Dreams Descend: A Novel (Kingdom of Cards) by Janella Angeles

The Habsburgs: To Rule the World by Martyn Rady

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price

Murder Most Puzzling: 20 Mysterious Cases to Solve (Murder Mystery Game, Adult Board Games, Mystery Games for Adults) by Stephanie von Reiswitz 

The Presidents vs. the Press: The Endless Battle between the White House and the Media–from the Founding Fathers to Fake News by Harold Holzer

The Last Great Road Bum: A Novel by Héctor Tobar

Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest

The Growing Season: How I Saved an American Farm–and Built a New Life by Sarah Frey 

The Wrong Mr. Darcy by Evelyn Lozada

The Family Clause: A Novel by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Alice Menzies (translator)

El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzmán by Alan Feuer

The Burning Kingdoms (The Smoke Thieves) by Sally Green

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, Rovina Cai (Illustrator)

Kodi by Jared Cullum

Midnight at the Barclay Hotel by Fleur Bradley, Xavier Bonet

The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War by Michael Gorra

The Woods by Vanessa Savage 

When I Was You by Amber Garza

Vision by Julia Gfrörer

Final Cut: A Novel by S. J. Watson

Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain by David Eagleman

The Vegucated Family Table: Irresistible Vegan Recipes and Proven Tips for Feeding Plant-Powered Babies, Toddlers, and Kids by Marisa Miller Wolfson, Laura Delhauer

Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale

When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry by Joy Harjo

Love Sold Separately by Ellen Meister 

Bright Raven Skies by Kristina Perez

White Hot Light: Twenty-Five Years in Emergency Medicine by Frank Huyler

The Artifact Hunters by Janet Fox

You Ought to Do a Story About Me: Addiction, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Endless Quest for Redemption by Ted Jackson

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

The Royal Governess: A Novel of Queen Elizabeth II’s Childhood by Wendy Holden

Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley

The Con Code by Shana Silver

Twin Daggers by MarcyKate Connolly

The Memory of Souls (A Chorus of Dragons) by Jenn Lyons

Traitor by Amanda McCrina

Frankie Comics by Rachel Dukes

Ironspark by C. M. McGuire

Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

The Whitsun Daughters by Carrie Mesrobian

The Seduction by Joanna Briscoe

City Under the Stars by Gardner Dozois, Michael Swanwick

Moss by Klaus Modick, David Herman (translator)

The Truth about Baked Beans: An Edible New England History by Meg Muckenhoupt

Beyond Repair: Encounters in a Fractured World by Sebastian Matthews

The Assignment by Liza M. Wiemer

Thread and Dead: The Apron Shop Series by Elizabeth Penney  

Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gómez

Against the Loveless World: A Novel by Susan Abulhawa

Best Debut Short Stories 2020: The Pen/Dau Prize 

I Can Sell You A Body by Ryan Ferrier, George Kambadais

Sisters by Daisy Johnson

Killer Kung Pao: A Noodle Shop Mystery by Vivien Chien

Spring: A Novel by Leila Rafei

Amboy: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream by Alvin Cailan, Alexandra Cuerdo

In the Shadows of Men by Robert Jackson Bennett 

Dispersion by Greg Egan