Best of
Books-About-Books

2022

With Love from London


Sarah JioSarah Jio - 2022
    Now in her thirties and fresh out of a failed marriage, Val feels a nagging disenchantment with her life--and knows she is still heartbroken over her mother's abandonment.In a bittersweet twist of fate, Val receives word that Eloise has passed away, leaving Val her Primrose Hill apartment and the deed to a bookshop Val never knew she'd owned. Though the news is devastating, Val finds herself more determined than ever to discover who her mother truly was. She jets across the Atlantic, departing Seattle for a new life in charming London.Slowly but surely, Val begins to piece together Eloise's life in the UK, falling in love with her pastel-colored flat, cozy neighborhood, and tucked-away storefront. But when she discovers that The Book Garden is in danger of going under, Val must work with its eccentric staff to get it in working order. In the process, she learns more about Eloise than she ever thought possible. And as Val races to save the shop, Eloise's own story unfolds, leading both mother and daughter to unearth revelatory truths.

The Little Wartime Library


Kate Thompson - 2022
    While the world remains at war, in East London Clara has created the country's only underground library, built over the tracks in the disused Bethnal Green tube station. Down here a secret community thrives: with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café and a theatre offering shelter, solace and escape from the bombs that fall above.Along with her glamorous best friend and library assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground. But as the war drags on, the women's determination to remain strong in the face of adversity is tested to the limits when it seems it may come at the price of keeping those closest to them alive.Based on true events, The Little Wartime Library is a gripping and heart-wrenching page-turner that remembers one of the greatest resistance stories of the war.

Happily Ever After Cookbook: Original Recipes for Book Lovers


Monica MurphyKatee Robert - 2022
    Now you can cook your way to a happily ever after...Enjoy New Orleans Gumbo from Kennedy Ryan's RITA-Award Winner Long Shot. Then bite into Texas BBQ Tacos from USA Today bestselling author K.A. Linde's The Wright Brother. Follow it up with Diablo Cookies from Dangerous Temptation by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Giana Darling. Finish your evening with an Underworld Cocktail inspired by New York Times bestselling author Katee Robert's Wicked Villains series.This sensual journey will surprise and delight readers!Billionaire heroes and strong heroines come to life with these recipes...The Happily Ever After Cookbook contains exclusive appetizers, soups, main dishes, desserts, cocktails, breakfast, and bakery recipes. Bring romance novels to life with these literary dishes. It will look great on your keeper shelf next to your favorite books.FULL LIST OF AUTHORS INCLUDED: Cora Reilly, Laurelin Paige, Adriana Locke, Meghan Quinn, K. Webster, Amelia Wilde, Giana Darling, Katee Robert, Kylie Scott, Alta Hensley, Amo Jones, Sara Ney, K.A. Linde, Jenika Snow, Q.B. Tyler, Corinne Michaels, Maya Hughes, Melanie Harlow, Kelly Elliott, Kandi Steiner, Susan Stoker, Kennedy Ryan, M. O'Keefe, Fiona Cole, Willow Winters, AM Hargrove, L.B. Dunbar, Terri E. Laine, Monica Murphy, Jana Aston, Susannah Nix, A.L. Jackson, Teagan Hunter, M. Robinson, Pepper Winters, Sienna Snow, Emma Scott, Skye Warren, Mia Sheridan, Kate Canterbary, Tasha Boyd, Danielle Romero, Louise Bay, Aleatha Romig

The Twyford Code


Janice Hallett - 2022
    He took it to his remedial English teacher, Miss Isles, who became convinced it was the key to solving a puzzle. That a message in secret code ran through all Edith Twyford's novels. Then Miss Isles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven's memory won't allow him to remember what happened. Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Isles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code? And is it still in use today? Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened to Miss Isles, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn't just a writer of forgotten children's stories. The Twyford Code has great power, and he isn't the only one trying to solve it...

Buzz Books 2022: Spring/Summer


Publishers Lunch - 2022
    As always, Buzz Books presents passionate readers with an insider’s look at the buzziest books due out this season. Such major bestselling authors as Geraldine Brooks, Sloane Crosley, Chris Pavone, Emma Straub, and Adriana Trigiani are featured, along with literary greats Abdulrazak Gurnah (our first Nobel Prize in Literature winner), NoViolet Bulawayo, Mohsin Hamid, and Marianne Wiggins. Other sure-to-be readers’ favorites are by Denny Bryce, Karne Joy Fowler, Jane Green, plus 14 more.Buzz Books has had a particularly stellar track record with highlighting the most talented, exciting and diverse debut authors, and this edition is no exception. Co-creator of the Emmy-winning series How I Met Your Mother, Carter Bays’ first novel is featured, along with Nishant Batsha, Jumi Bello, Melissa Chadburn, and Sopan Deb, and 13 other debut writers.Our nonfiction selections cover such fascinating subjects as a symbolic World War 11 Marine Corps football game by Pulitzer-Prize winner Buzz Bissinger; a literary memoir of recovery from opioid addiction; a true crime story; and a primer on brain health.Be sure to look out for Buzz Books 2022: Fall/Winter, coming in May.

Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library


Amanda Oliver - 2022
    Using her experience at this branch allows Oliver to highlight the national problems that have existed in libraries since they were founded: racism, segregation, and class inequalities. These age-old problems have evolved into police violence, the opioid epidemic, rampant houselessness, and lack of mental health care nationwide—all of which come to a head in public library spaces.   Can public librarians continue to play the many roles they are tasked with? Can American society sustain one of its most noble institutions?Pushing against hundreds of years of stereotypes, romanticization, and discomfort with a call to reckoning, Overdue will change the way you think about libraries forever.

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times


Azar Nafisi - 2022
    Drawing on her experiences as a woman and voracious reader living in the Islamic Republic of Iran, her life as an immigrant in the United States, and her role as literature professor in both countries, she crafts an argument for why, in a genuine democracy, we must engage with the enemy, and how literature can be a vehicle for doing so.Structured as a series of letters to her father, Baba, who taught her as a child about how literature can rescue us in times of trauma, Nafisi explores the most probing questions of our time through the works of Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, James Baldwin, Margaret Atwood, and more.

A Novel Obsession


Caitlin Barasch - 2022
    Is anything solely mine, or will I always dwell in someone else’s shadow?” Twenty-four-year-old bookseller and New Yorker Naomi Ackerman, desperate to write a novel, struggles to find the right story to tell. When, after years of disastrous Tinder dates, she meets Caleb—a perfectly nice guy with a Welsh accent and a unique patience for all of her quirks—she feels she's finally stumbled onto a time-honored subject: love. But then Caleb's ex-girlfriend, Rosemary, enters the scene. When Naomi learns that Rosemary is not safely tucked away overseas as she'd assumed but in fact lives in New York and works in the literary world, she is fundamentally threatened and intrigued in equal measure. On paper, Rosemary sounds like a better version of Naomi—but if they both fell for the same man, they must have something more essential in common. Determined to figure out how their stories intertwine, Naomi's casual Instagram stalking morphs into a full-blown friendship under false pretenses. She can't seem to get herself to quit Rosemary, in whom she discovers an unexpected confidant—and she can't stop writing about her either, having now found a more interesting subject for her nascent novel. As her lies and half-truths spiral out of her control, and fact and fiction become increasingly difficult to separate, Naomi manipulates the most important people in her life—her family, her friends, Caleb, Rosemary, and, perhaps most devastatingly, herself—in pursuit of her craft. Ultimately, she’s forced to decide who and what she's willing to sacrifice to write them all the perfect ending.

The Alarm at Aberden


Kaitlyn Dean - 2022
    A small town harboring numerous secrets. And a ghost simply dying to save them all.Bella Daniels thinks books will be her only excitement in the sleepy town of Ashbury Dires, which is exactly what she needs after leaving behind the pressures and romantic complications of the big city. But the budding freelance editor finds more than she bargained for in her new town's historic library.Some spirits just won't rest in peace, especially when they have a town to save.With the help of her ghostly gal pal, Bella is determined to solve the mysteries surrounding Ashbury Dires...starting with the body found in her backyard.Will Bella and her otherworldly partner put the pieces together before the murderer can claim another victim?If you like small town secrets, amateur sleuths, and wily spirits, you'll love this debut mystery by Kaitlyn Dean.

The Ultimate Reading Challenge: Complete a Goal, Open an Envelope, and Reveal Your Bookish Prize!


Weldon Owen - 2022
    Each pocket inside this portfolio challenges readers to a literary challenge. Once the reader completes a challenge, they can open the pocket to claim their bookish prize.  Use these challenges to finally tackle your to-be-read pile, check out the books on Bookstagram and Booktok you’ve been dying to read, or discover new and hidden treasures. The perfect gift for book lovers of all ages, genres, and abilities, The Ultimate Reading Challenge encourages bibliophiles to: Read personally Re-read a book you loved as a child. Ask a family member what book has made a lasting impression on them.     Read compassionately  Read a book that features an indigenous person. Read a book about a person with a disability.   Read broadly Visit your local bookstore and ask a bookseller to recommend a book. Read in a place you’ve never read before.   Engage creatively Make a snack or meal described in a book you’ve read. Write a letter to someone who has influenced your reading life.   Prizes include: A laser-engraved wooden bookmark Bookish greeting cards Coffee cup sleeve Book darts A mini notebook And much more!

The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind


Jason M. Baxter - 2022
    S. Lewis had one of the great minds of the twentieth century. Many readers know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Others know him for his books in apologetics, including Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain. But few know him for his scholarly work as a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature. What shaped the mind of this great thinker? Jason Baxter argues that Lewis was deeply formed not only by the words of Scripture and his love of ancient mythology, but also by medieval literature. For this undeniably modern Christian, authors like Dante and Boethius provided a worldview that was relevant to the challenges of the contemporary world. Here, readers will encounter an unknown figure to guide them in their own journey: C. S. Lewis the medievalist.

Malkah’s Notebook: A Journey into the Mystical Aleph-Bet


Mira Z. Amiras - 2022
    But they don’t get very far. As Malkah studies, her questions multiply. She discovers an earlier, hidden story of creation within the Hebrew Aleph-Bet letters in the first line of Genesis. And a door opens. Malkah’s discovery takes her on a lifelong journey in search of her beginnings—into Jewish mystical texts, far-off places, archaeological digs, ancient gods, and ultimately into the nature of existence itself.Part bedtime story, part poem, part journal, and coupled with highly evocative illustrations, Malkah’s Notebook is a love letter to the Hebrew alphabet that unlocks life’s greatest mysteries.