October is upon us, so it’s time to share my October 2022 Anticipated Releases! As always, there are lots of amazing books coming our way. But here’s a selection of a few titles I’m particularly interested in. So without further ado, here’s my list of October 2022 Anticipated Releases!
Our Missing Hearts
Celeste Ng
October 4th, 2022
From the #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, comes one of the most highly anticipated books of the year – the inspiring new novel about a mother’s unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear.
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.
Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.
Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s a story about the power—and limitations—of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.
A Scatter of Light
Malinda Lo
October 4th, 2022
Award-winning author Malinda Lo returns to the Bay Area with another masterful coming-of-queer-age story, this time set against the backdrop of the first major Supreme Court decisions legalizing gay marriage. And almost sixty years after the end of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Lo’s new novel also offers a glimpse into Lily and Kath’s lives since 1955.
Aria Tang West was looking forward to a summer on Martha’s Vineyard with her best friends–one last round of sand and sun before college. But after a graduation party goes wrong, Aria’s parents exile her to California to stay with her grandmother, artist Joan West.Aria expects boredom, but what she finds is Steph Nichols, her grandmother’s gardener. Soon, Aria is second-guessing who she is and what she wants to be, and a summer that once seemed lost becomes unforgettable–for Aria, her family, and the working-class queer community Steph introduces her to. It’s the kind of summer that changes a life forever.
Station Eternity
Mur Lafferty
October 4th, 2022
From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet…and markedly devoid of homicide.
But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board….
We are the Scribes
Randi Pink
October 18th, 2022
A young adult novel by Randi Pink about a teenage activist who is visited by the ghost of Harriet Jacobs, an enslaved woman.
Ruth Fitz is surrounded by activism. Her mother is a senator who frequently appears on CNN as a powerful Black voice fighting for legislative social change within the Black community. Her father, a professor of African American history, is a walking encyclopedia, spouting off random dates and events. And her beloved older sister, Virginia, is a natural activist, steadily gaining notoriety within the community and on social media. Ruth, on the other hand, would rather sit quietly reading or writing in her journal.
When her family is rocked by tragedy, Ruth stops writing. As life goes on, Ruth’s mother is presented with a political opportunity she can’t refuse. Just as Senator Fitz is more absent, Ruth begins receiving parchment letters with a seal reading WE ARE THE SCRIBES, sent by Harriet Jacobs, the author of the autobiography and 1861 American classic, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Is Ruth dreaming? How has she been chosen as a “scribe” when she can barely put a sentence together? In a narrative that blends present with past, Randi Pink explores two extraordinary characters who channel their hopelessness and find their voices to make history.
Self-Portrait with Nothing
Aimee Pokwatka
October 18th, 2022
If a picture paints a thousand worlds…
Abandoned as an infant on the local veterinarian’s front porch, Pepper Rafferty was raised by two loving mothers, and now at thirty-six is married to the stable, supportive Ike. She’s never told anyone that at fifteen she discovered the identity of her biological mother.
That’s because her birth mother is Ula Frost, a reclusive painter famous for the outrageous claims that her portraits summon their subjects’ doppelgangers from parallel universes.
Researching the rumors, Pepper couldn’t help but wonder:
Was there a parallel universe in which she was more confident, more accomplished, better able to accept love?
A universe in which Ula decided she was worth keeping?
A universe in which Ula’s rejection didn’t still hurt too much to share?Sometimes living our best life means embracing the imperfect one we already have…
Sign Here
Claudia Lux
October 25th, 2022
A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul.
Peyote Trip has a pretty good gig in the deals department on the fifth floor of Hell. Sure, none of the pens work, the coffee machine has been out of order for a century, and the only drink on offer is Jägermeister, but Pey has a plan—and all he needs is one last member of the Harrison family to sell their soul.
When the Harrisons retreat to the family lake house for the summer, with their daughter Mickey’s precocious new friend, Ruth, in tow, the opportunity Pey has waited a millennium for might finally be in his grasp. And with the help of his charismatic coworker Calamity, he sets a plan in motion.
But things aren’t always as they seem, on Earth or in Hell. And as old secrets and new dangers scrape away at the Harrisons’ shiny surface, revealing the darkness beneath, everyone must face the consequences of their choices.
Do you keep track of new releases? If so, what’s on your October 2022 Anticipated Releases list? Let me know!
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January 2021 Wrapup
January was quite a hectic and difficult month for me. If you haven’t read my recent posts, I became ill and have needed to take some time to physically recover. Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of people went through a bad first month of the year as well! If your January wasn’t the best either, I hope February ends up being much better.
Despite all of the chaos of this month, I did still manage to read nine books. I’m surprised by this as I’m dealing with pretty frequent migraines, but it looks like on the days I wasn’t dealing with that I was reading quite a bit. (I guess because my motion has been pretty limited as of late!) I can’t say that I loved every book, but the ones I did I really really enjoyed.
Part of me is also thinking of adding other elements of my life to my wrap-ups – what do you think? I personally like this on blogs because I feel like I’m getting to know the blogger a bit better. I also kind of want to add some stats to my wrap-ups (which I did below) because I really wanted to make use of the cool counters that came with the Divi Builder. 😅
Anyway, here’s everything I read this January and my thoughts!
February 2021 TBR
If you read my post when I returned after a hiatus, you may know that January has been a pretty chaotic month for me. That being said, January’s reading did not quite go as planned! While it was a bit of a stretch for a TBR, I didn’t get to reading The Lord of the Rings in any capacity. This month remains ambitious, but I’m hoping February will be a lot better than January.
So without further ado, here are my reading plans for February!
December 2020 Wrap-up
This December, I read nine books. I didn’t get to everything on my TBR; I’m currently in the middle of two books I carried over from December. I knew my TBR was a bit ambitious for December, so it’s not too much of a surprise that I didn’t finish it. So what does my January TBR look like? Even more books than I had for December! Yaaay! 🙃
December was a bit of a weird month for me because I spent so much time working, so I didn’t dedicate as much time to bookish activities as I normally would have. Regardless, I did find some books this month that I really enjoyed.
Anyway, here’s everything I read this month, and my thoughts on each of them!
All such intriguing selections. I haven’t heard of any of them and I love that!