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New Releases Tuesday: The Best Books Out This Week

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Erica Ezeifedi

Associate Editor

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack. Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for new books! Here are a few of the books out today you should add to your TBR. This is a very small percentage of the new releases this week. Make sure to stick around until the end for some more Book Riot resources for keeping up with new books.

cover of The Late Americans

The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

This latest release from Taylor is a character study that gets into the nitty gritty of the lives of a few graduate students in Iowa. Their work and academic lives are juxtaposed with their messy personal lives as they hurtle towards (hopeful) self discovery. Poet Seamus hooks up with the son of a patient at the hospital he works at; couple Goran and Ivan argue about a lack of intimacy in their relationship (while Ivan dabbles in amateur pornography), and more. Common themes of discontent caused by class differences and sex are shared by these and the other characters throughout the novel.

Rogue Justice cover

Rogue Justice by Stacey Abrams

Fans of the first book starring Avery Keene, While Justice Sleeps, will love this second installment, which finds the character reeling from the consequences of the first installment. Keene gets involved in a new conspiracy after another law clerk, Preston Davies, approaches her and gives her an encrypted file. Davies then winds up dead. What she knows is that the file given to her has a list of the names of federal judges…which may have something to do with the blackmailing of Davies’ boss, another federal judge.

cover of Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street

Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street 
by Victor Luckerson

Built From the Fire expands on the history of the Tulsa Race Massacre, which is still not as widely taught as it should be, through the story of the Goodwin family and other community members. After the massacre killed an estimated 300 people, locals rebuilt the city into a Mecca. It housed a mix of Black people of differing socio-economic class and occupations, and even attracted icons like W.E.B. Du Bois and Muhammad Ali. Ed, a son from the Goodwin family, ends up buying the newspaper The Oklahoma Eagle, where he tried to document the Greenwood neighborhood’s progress despite white racism. This is a personalized account of Goodwin’s family and a persevering community.

cover of When the World Didn't End

When the World Didn’t End by Guinevere Turner 

In 1975, when she was 7, Turner got ready for salvation in the form of a trip to Venus. When that didn’t happen, she eventually caught the eye of the Lyman cult’s “queen,” Jessie, who took her under her wing. Then, when she was 11, her, her sister, and their estranged mother were kicked out of the cult and forced to acclimate to the rest of society. In this memoir, Turner, now a screenwriter and director, speaks on what it was like being ripped out of one way of life and forced into another.

cover of The Luis Ortega Survival Club

The Luis Ortega Survival Club by Sonora Reyes

Reyes, author of the many award-nominated (and winning!) The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School  is back with a YA revenge centered around an autistic girl. While Ariana Ruiz, who has selective mutism, wants to be noticed by her classmates, she gets what turns into unwanted attention from the popular Luis Ortega. After sex at a party leaves her feeling like something’s wrong, rumors about her start circulating. But then she finds an odd note in her locker that calls for Luis’ predatory nature to be exposed, and she meets a group of other students who all have Luis in common. In the group she finds friendship, possible romance, and a chance for sweet revenge.

cover of Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances  by Kwame Alexander

Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances by Kwame Alexander

Alexander offers up a memoir formed by poems, recipes, letters, and prose to create a multi-perspective way of looking at his life. He takes readers from his early days of being a newlywed to his working in a jazz club and to the more recent passing of his mother. Through the different forms he uses throughout this memoir, Alexander paints a vulnerable and honest look at the myriad kinds of love.

Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:

  • All the Books, our weekly new book releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about eight books out that week that we’ve read and loved.
  • The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz.
  • Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by trending books, Rioters’ picks, and even LGBTQ new releases!