Hello,
Welcome to a new year and a feast of new books to explore. This week we have 18 titles on our "new and notable list" including two that BookBrowse members reviewed for our First Impressions Program: The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington draws comparisons to the works of Pat Conroy and Alice McDermott, while The Prophets has people comparing debut novelist Robert Jones to Toni Morrison and James Baldwin.
Enjoy!
Davina Morgan-Witts, Editor
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This Week's New and Notable Books
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There are too many books published each week for you to read about them all, let alone read them all. So we do the legwork for you, scouring the publishers' catalogs and the pre-publication reviews to pick out what we believe to be among the best and most interesting. For more about our process, click the two right hand links below.
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The Fortunate Ones
by Ed Tarkington
On sale Jan 5 from Algonquin Books
Genre: Novels. 320 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
Members' Rating: 4.2/5
For fans of Ann Patchett's Commonwealth and Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here, The Fortunate Ones is an engrossing story of class, love, and loyalty.
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The Prophets
by Robert Jones Jr.
Debut Author
On sale Jan 5 from G.P. Putnam's Sons
Genre: Historical Fiction. 400 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
Members' Rating: 4.5/5
A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.
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A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself
by Peter Ho Davies
On sale Jan 5 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: Novels. 240 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
A heartbreaking, soul-baring novel about the repercussions of choice that "will strike a resonant chord with parents everywhere," (starred Kirkus) from the award-winning author of The Welsh Girl and The Fortunes
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Be Dazzled
by Ryan La Sala
On sale Jan 5 from Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Novels (Young Adult). 336 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
Project Runway goes to Comic Con in an epic queer love story about creativity, passion, and finding the courage to be your most authentic self.
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Black Buck
by Mateo Askaripour
Debut Author
On sale Jan 5 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: Novels. 400 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
For fans of Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street - a crackling, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.
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One of the Good Ones
by Maika Moulite, Maritza Moulite
On sale Jan 5 from Inkyard Press
Genre: Novels (Young Adult). 352 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
A shockingly powerful exploration of the lasting impact of prejudice and the indomitable spirit of sisterhood that will have readers questioning what it truly means to be an ally, from sister-writer duo Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, authors of Dear Haiti, Love Alaine.
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The Death of Murat Idrissi
by Tommy Wieringa
On sale Jan 5 from Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Genre: Novels. 112 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
Two women on a journey through the land of their fathers and mothers. A wrong turn. A bad decision.
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The Liar's Dictionary
by Eley Williams
Debut Author
On sale Jan 5 from Doubleday
Genre: Novels. 288 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
An exhilarating and laugh-out-loud debut novel from a prize-winning new talent which chronicles the misadventures of a lovelorn Victorian lexicographer and the young woman put on his trail a century later to root out his misdeeds while confronting questions of her own sexuality and place in the world.
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When You Look Like Us
by Pamela N. Harris
Debut Author
On sale Jan 5 from Quill Tree Books
Genre: Novels (Young Adult). 368 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
From debut author Pamela Harris comes a timely, gripping teen novel about a boy who must take up the search for his sister when she goes missing from a neighborhood where black girls' disappearances are too often overlooked. Perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Tiffany D. Jackson.
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Sergeant Salinger
by Jerome Charyn
On sale Jan 5 from Bellevue Literary Press
Genre: Historical Fiction. 288 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
J.D. Salinger, mysterious author of The Catcher in the Rye, is remembered today as a reclusive misanthrope.
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The Sea Gate
by Jane Johnson
On sale Jan 5 from Simon & Schuster
Genre: Historical Fiction. 416 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
A broken family, a house of secrets - an entrancing tale of love and courage set during the Second World War.
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House of the Patriarch: Benjamin January #18
by Barbara Hambly
On sale Jan 5 from Severn House
Genre: Mysteries. 256 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
No one can talk to the dead...can they? Free man of color Benjamin January gets caught up in a strange, spiritual world that might lead to his own demise, as he hunts for a missing teenager in this gripping, atmospheric historical mystery.
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Pickard County Atlas
by Chris Harding Thornton
Debut Author
On sale Jan 5 from MCD
Genre: Thrillers. 288 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
Small-town secrets loom large in this spellbinding debut about the aftershocks of crime and trauma that shake a Nebraskan town.
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The Push
by Ashley Audrain
Debut Author
On sale Jan 5 from Pamela Dorman Books
Genre: Thrillers. 320 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family--and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for--and everything she feared.
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Featherhood: A Memoir of Two Fathers and a Magpie
by Charlie Gilmour
Debut Author
On sale Jan 5 from Scribner
Genre: Biography/Memoir. 304 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
H is for Hawk meets The Duke of Deception in this wry, moving story of a young man who, as his estranged father is dying, saves a baby magpie only to find that caring for the mischievous bird has, in fact, saved him.
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The Awakening of Malcolm X
by Ilyasah Shabazz, Tiffany D. Jackson
On sale Jan 5 from FSG Books for Young Readers
Genre: Biography/Memoir (Young Adult). 336 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
The Awakening of Malcolm X is a powerful narrative account of the activist's adolescent years in jail, written by his daughter Ilyasah Shabazz along with 2019 Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe award-winning author, Tiffany D. Jackson.
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Unsolaced: Along the Way to All That Is
by Gretel Ehrlich
On sale Jan 5 from Pantheon Books
Genre: Biography/Memoir. 256 pages
Critics' Opinion: 5/5
From the author of the enduring classic The Solace of Open Spaces, here is a wondrous meditation on how water, light, wind, mountain, bird, and horse have shaped her life and her understanding of a world besieged by a climate crisis.
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Himalaya: A Human History
by Ed Douglas
On sale Jan 5 from W.W. Norton & Company
Genre: History, Science & Current Affairs. 592 pages
Critics' Opinion: 4/5
A magisterial history of the Himalaya: an epic story of peoples, cultures, and adventures among the world's highest mountains.
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