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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_.
View All posts by Erica Ezeifedi
It’s a good day. NPR has released their huge, interactive list of their Books We Love, and we are geeking out. As usual, readers can sort the mega list by what they’re feeling, and are able to choose from options like “eye-opening reads” to “realistic fiction” to “it’s all geek to me.” You can also keep adding fields to sort by until you arrive at your one, perfect read. Oh NPR, the book lovers you are.
After you’ve played around with that bit, Danika Ellis has a great Read Harder wrap-up survey to participate in. And, even if you haven’t read anything towards our Read Harder challenge, it could still be interesting to see what kind of book year your fellow readers had when Danika comes back with the results.
Until then, I’ve got essays on American consumerism, a gothic mystery, the Russian ballet world, and church girls.
City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim
From the author of Beasts of a Little Land comes a novel set in 2019 in the ballet world of Russia. Prima Ballerina Natalia Leonova is back in St. Petersberg after a career-altering accident led her to substance abuse. She encounters old ghosts—both haunting and alluring—as she traverses her old stomping ground, and when she gets offered a way back to her former glory on stage by sus genius Dmitri, she’ll have to decide whether trying to reenter the world of ballet is worth its more cutthroat aspects.
Darkly by Marisha Pessl
This buzzy YA mystery gives The Inheritance Games teas a bit. I say that because it also involves a seemingly ordinary teenager chosen for a puzzle/game-heavy trial. Dia is the one chosen for a highly competitive internship at Darkly, a huge game-making company known for terrifying toys and games. Now that Darkly’s founder, Louisiana Veda, has died mysteriously, the company is kind of dead. But then there’s the internship, and once Dia starts it, she and her fellow interns find themselves in a world of hidden symbols and intrigue.
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Freedom: Memories 1954 – 2021 by Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel was the Chancellor of Germany since I started paying attention to politics, and well after. Here, she looks at everything in her life that made her the kind of person to become the first woman to serve in her position in Germany. She looks at the two versions of Germany she grew up with—the German Democratic Republic and a reunified Germany—her childhood, youth, and “when the Wall fell and her political life began.” She also gets into her experience with having meetings with the world’s most powerful leaders, and what she thinks the world needs for freedom.
Church Girl by Naima Simone
First things first: I love the art style of this cover! As for the contents, it is very much giving the classic good girl/bad boy trope, with its preacher’s daughter and grumpy, cussin’ tattoo artist. But, Aaliyah Montgomery might not be as good as the people around her would hope her to be (Alexa, play “Church Girl” by Beyoncé). She’s a runaway bride desperate to break out of her small town when she lands in Chicago. She gets a job as a nanny with Von Howard, and honestly, she’s terrible, but he’s just trying to hold it together after his divorce. But things get complicated because Aaliyah is thicker than cold peanut butter, and Von is high-key gorgeous.
American Bulk: Essays on Excess by Emily Mester
Here, Mester uses cultural trends and personal stories to bring more of an emotional lens to the behemoth that is American consumerism. She looks at her experience with Costco family trips, a seasonal Ulta job, her grandmother’s abandoned Iowan hoard, and even her liberating teenage summer at fat camp, all to contend with the dysfunction and emotions at the root of our obsession with stuff.
Daughters of Bronze: A Novel of Troy by A. D. Rhine
Lovers of Greek mythology stay well-fed. With this latest reimagining, the women of Troy come alive. Andromache prepares for a possible change to her status as leader once she births the city’s male heir; Rhea is a Trojan spy who falls in love in an enemy camp; Helen tries to trade grief for healing; and Cassandra knows the fate of Troy—problem is, will anyone listen? Each of these women’s actions leads them closer to an eventful end.
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!