New Releases and More for May 13, 2025

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This week, Liberty and Vanessa discuss The Emperor of Gladness, Death in the Cards, So Many Stars, and more great books!

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Books Discussed On the Show:

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala

Portalmania: Stories by Debbie Urbanski

So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro de Robertis

The Dark Maestro by Brendan Slocumb

The Intermediaries by Brandy Schillace

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

The Labyrinth House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, Ho-Ling Wong (translator)

Paperback Releases:

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

Another Word for Love: A Memoir by Carvell Wallace

Never Let Me Go: Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Kazuo Ishiguro

Looking for Smoke by K. A. Cobell

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean

Liars by Sarah Manguso

All Fours by Miranda July

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur

What We’re Reading:

Bochica by Carolina Flórez-Cerchiaro 

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile by Errick Nunally

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

More Books Out This Week:

A Curse Carved in Bone: Book Two of the Saga of the Unfated by Danielle L. Jensen 

The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon’s Enduring Impact on America by Mark Whitaker

Motherhood and Its Ghosts by Iman Mersal, Robin Moger (translator)

Circular Motion by Alex Foster

Shampoo Unicorn by Sawyer Lovett

The Duke Steals Hearts & Other Body Parts by Elias Cold

Odyssey: The Greek Myths Reimagined by Stephen Fry

Detained: A boy’s journal of survival and resilience by D. Esperanza, Gerardo Iván Morales

Athlete Is Agender: True Stories of LGBTQ+ People in Sports edited by Katherine Locke, Nicole Melleby

Carpet Diem: Tales from the World of Oriental Rugs by George Bradley

The Missing Kidney and Other Stories by Maxine Rosaler

Take to the Trees: A Story of Hope, Science, and Self-Discovery in America’s Imperiled Forests by Marguerite Holloway

Fitting Indian by Jyoti Chand, Tara Anand

Home Has No Borders edited by Samira Ahmed, Sona Charaipotra

The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr

We All Want to Change the World: My Journey Through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Raymond Obstfeld

The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin

Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan

Get Real, Chloe Torres by Crystal Maldonado

Make Me Famous by Maud Ventura, Gretchen Schmid (translator)

Transplants by Daniel Tam-Claiborne

The Thirteen Doors of Black House by Laura Lavoie

Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire

Nightshining: A Memoir in Four Floods by Jennifer Kabat

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow

An Almanac of Birds: 100 Divinations for Uncertain Days by Maria Popova

The Singular Life of Aria Patel by Samira Ahmed

When We Go Missing by April Henry

Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community by Maggie Helwig

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (Dungeon Crawler Carl) by Matt Dinniman

Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up by Dave Barry

State Champ by Hilary Plum

A Gardin Wedding: A Gardins of Edin Novel by Rosey Lee

Mothersalt by Mia Ayumi Malhotra

Fog and Fury by Rachel Howzell Hall

Metallic Realms by Lincoln Michel

Slaying You by Michelle Gagnon

Eliza, from Scratch by Sophia Lee

Happiness Forever by Adelaide Faith

Dream On, Ramona Riley by Ashley Herring Blake

Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam

Maine Characters by Hannah Orenstein

Sleep by Honor Jones

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

A Sharp Endless Need by Marisa Crane 

Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan

The Art of Exile by Andrea Max

Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang

The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North

The Romance Rivalry by Susan Lee

The Wish Switch by Lynn Painter

My Father’s House: An Ode to America’s Longest-Serving Black Congressman by John Conyers III

Queen of All Mayhem: The Blood-Soaked Life and Mysterious Death of Belle Starr, the Most Dangerous Woman in the West by Dane Huckelbridge

Their Just Desserts by Tracy Badua, Alechia Dow

Only Smoke by Juan José Millás, Thomas Bunstead, Daniel Hahn (translators)

The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco by Diego Boneta

Trans History: From Ancient Times to the Present Day by Alex L. Combs, Andrew Eakett

The Emilie Adventures: Emilie and the Hollow World & Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells

Sestia (The Five Queendoms) by G.R. Macallister

When Love Gives You Lemons by Steven Salvatore

Bear Witness: The Pursuit of Justice in a Violent Land by Ross Halperin

Life and Art: Essays by Richard Russo

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz

The Battle for the Black Mind by Karida L. Brown

A Terrifying Brush with Optimism: New and Selected Stories by Brian Leung