Pub Day Picks // September 15, 2020

Happy book birthday to all the great new books in the world! I feel like each week this September has just been one big surprise after another. One big book publishing after another! This week is no exception as we dive into my current read and some more highly anticipated books being published. Here’s what I’m excited for:

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

When you’re current read is also being published and you haven’t finished reading the book! That’s how I feel as I approach Tuesday and my sixth day of reading To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. To be honest, my reading life has been a little iffy. I can’t seem to focus on the words and spending more time dumping thoughts into my journal than actually reading pages. But I feel like I’m coming back from that feeling and really starting to get through the book. So far, it’s really good, but it is dense. There’s a lot going on with its single perspective, its main character, and the intrigue throughout the story is quite palatable. I would strongly recommend this book if you’re a fan of science fiction or even fantasy. It’s quite easy to read too without a lot of jargon or lyrical writing. I’ll most definitely be sharing more thoughts when I’m done.

During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she’s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.

As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn’t at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.

While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity’s greatest and final hope . . .”

Piranesi by Susanna Clark

From the brilliant mind behind Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell comes a much smaller book! LOL, I’m only kidding. But seriously, Susanna Clark has a new book out and I can’t wait to read it.

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

For readers of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane and fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe, Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.

Legendborn by Traci Deonn

All I’ve seen are really good reviews for Legendborn. I keep seeing this make its way through the bookstagram community and I’m so excited it’s finally out in the world. I might need to order this one as well. Good grief, where’s my money going?

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

Horrid by Katrina Leno

I feel like 2020 is the year of the spooky books. So many gothic stories like Mexican Gothic and Catherine House are being published, but also excitement around Rebecca being made into a movie. I find myself loving these stories and Horrid is no exception.

Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone…and more tormented.

As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all–it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears…. Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more…horrid?

What are you excited about publishing today?