Riot Headline The Best Books of 2024

New Releases and More for January 12, 2021

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This week, Liberty and Vanessa discuss Yellow Wife, Summerwater, The House on Vesper Sands, and more great books.

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BOOKS DISCUSSED ON THE SHOW:

What Could Be Saved by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C. M. Waggoner

We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart

Yellow Wife: A Novel by Sadeqa Johnson

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Stories About Racism by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar

Summerwater: A Novel by Sarah Moss 

The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O’Donnell 

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

That Old Country Music: Stories by Kevin Barry

The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata by Gina Apostol 

Reconstruction: Stories by Alaya Dawn Johnson

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders 

The Beautiful Struggle: YA Edition by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Tales From the Hinterland by Melissa Albert 

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories by Mariana Enriquez, Megan McDowell (translator)

Detransition, Baby: A Novel by Torrey Peters 

The Center of Everything: A Novel by Jamie Harrison 

Hades, Argentina: A Novel by Daniel Loedel 

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite 

WHAT WE’RE READING:

Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T.A. Willberg

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel 

MORE BOOKS OUT THIS WEEK:

Run to Win: Lessons in Leadership for Women Changing the World by Stephanie Schriock, Christina Reynolds

Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life and Win the 1960 Election by Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick

Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer

God of Nothingness: Poems by Mark Wunderlich

Siri, Who Am I? A Novel by Sam Tschida

Sleep Well, My Lady by Kwei Quartey

Overnight Code: The Life of Raye Montague, the Woman Who Revolutionized Naval Engineering by Paige Bowers, David Montague

Murder in Canaryville: The True Story Behind a Cold Case and a Chicago Cover-Up by Jeff Coen

You Have a Match: A Novel by Emma Lord 

City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda

Lana’s War: A Novel by Anita Abriel 

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly 

The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

Divine Justice by Joanne Hichens

Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller 

Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey Parent by Rich Cohen 

American Daughter: A Memoir by Stephanie Thornton Plymale, Elissa Wald

People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd

When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep by Antonio Zadra and Robert Stickgold

Shine Until Tomorrow by Carla Malden

Every Single Lie by Rachel Vincent

Stella Díaz Dreams Big by Angela Dominguez

A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer

Alone by Megan E. Freeman 

Goldibooks and the Wee Bear by Troy Wilson and Edwardian Taylor

Bevelations: Lessons from a Mutha, Auntie, Bestie by Bevy Smith

Life Among the Terranauts by Caitlin Horrocks

Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood by Gary Paulsen

The Meet-Cute Project by Rhiannon Richardson

Before the Ruins: A Novel by Victoria Gosling

The Effort by Claire Holroyde 

Waiting for the Night Song by Julie Carrick Dalton 

The Captive: A Novel by Fiona King Foster

The Brass Queen by Elizabeth Chatsworth

The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous

Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne

The Frozen Crown: A Novel by Greta Kelly

Deep into the Dark by P. J. Tracy 

Dear Miss Kopp (Kopp Sisters) by Amy Stewart and Michelle Tessler

Surrender the Dead: A Novel by John Burley

Pedro’s Theory: Reimagining the Promised Land by Marcos Gonsalez

The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames: A Memoir by Justine Cowan

Many Points of Me by Caroline Gertler

We Found a Monster by Kirk Scroggs

The Inland Sea: A Novel by Madeleine Watts

The Ambassador of Nowhere Texas by Kimberly Willis Holt

The Children’s Blizzard: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin

Our Italian Summer by Jennifer Probst 

The Historians: A Novel by Cecilia Ekbäck

The Tool & the Butterflies by Dmitry Lipskerov, Reilly Costigan-Humes (translator)

The Animal Rescue Agency #1: Case File: Little Claws by Eliot Schrefer

The Children’s Train: A Novel by Viola Ardone, Clarissa Botsford (translator)

Adventures and Misadventures of the Extraordinary and Admirable Joan Orpí, Conquistador and Founder of New Catalonia by Max Besora, Mara Faye Lethem (translator)

Clues to the Universe by Christina Li

Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Brown

Aftershocks: A Memoir by Nadia Owusu

Find Me in Havana: A Novel by Serena Burdick

Troubled: The Failed Promise of America’s Behavioral Treatment Programs by Kenneth R. Rosen 

The Lost Manuscript: A Novel by Cathy Bonidan

Useless Miracle by Barry Schechter

W-3 by Bette Howland 

Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas by Alexi Pappas and Maya Rudolph

The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin

The Nightmare Thief by Nicole Lesperance

Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink

Fucked at Birth: Recalibrating the American Dream for the 2020s by Dale Maharidge

Julian Bond’s Time to Teach: A History of the Southern Civil Rights Movement by Julian Bond

Many Points of Me by Caroline Gertler 

The Ocean House: Stories by Mary-Beth Hughes

The Lost Boys by Faye Kellerman

Sloth and Smell the Roses by Hello!Lucky

The Other Mother: A Novel by Matthew Dicks