Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Top Ten Tuesday: Best New Book Releases 2021

 

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.


Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday! Today, we’re talking about the July-December 2021 releases I’m excited to read. In this post, I’m going to focus on adult books. There will be another post in a few weeks for new young adult and children’s books. If you’re interested in the books that came out in the first half of 2021, I have a post for that too!

 

 

 

Best New Book Releases 2021

 

 

 

 

Reputation by Lex Croucher

Adult Historical Humor

July 8, 2021 (UK Release Date)



Abandoned by her parents, middle-class Georgiana Ellers has moved to a new town to live with her dreary aunt and uncle. At a particularly dull party, she meets the enigmatic Frances Campbell, a wealthy member of the in-crowd who lives a life Georgiana couldn't have imagined in her wildest dreams.

Lonely and vulnerable, Georgiana falls in with Frances and her unfathomably rich, deeply improper friends. Georgiana is introduced to a new world: drunken debauchery, mysterious young men with strangely arresting hands, and the upper echelons of Regency society.

But the price of entry to high society might just be higher than Georgiana is willing to pay.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: Early reviewers say it’s hilarious, and it’s being described as Mean Girls meets Jane Austen. I love both those things. Bring on the debauchery!

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

Adult Horror

July 13, 2021



In horror movies, the final girl is the one who's left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she's not alone. For more than a decade she's been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette's worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: Grady Hendrix wrote Horrorstör, which is one of my favorite horror novels. His work is self-reflexive. It pokes fun at common horror tropes while still delivering the spookiness and twists I want from a horror novel.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

Bring Your Baggage And Don’t Pack Light: Essays by Helen Ellis

Adult Humor Essays

July 13, 2021



When Helen Ellis and her lifelong friends arrive for a reunion on the Redneck Riviera they unpack more than their suitcases: stories of husbands and kids, lost parents and lost jobs powdered onion dip and photographs you have to hold by the edges; dirty jokes and sunscreen with SPF higher than they hair-sprayed their bangs senior year, and a bad mammogram. It's a diagnosis that scares them, but could never break their bond. Because women pushing fifty won't be pushed around.

In these twelve gloriously comic and moving essays, Helen Ellis dishes on married middle-age sex, sobs with a theater full of women as a psychic exorcises their sorrows, gets twenty shots of stomach bile to the neck to get rid of her double chin, and gathers up the courage to ask, Are you there, Menopause? It's Me, Helen.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: Goodreads describes it as “A book that reads like the best cocktail party of your life.” Sounds fun. A few years ago, I read Helen Ellis’s short story collection, American Housewife, which was funny and intensely relatable.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

Billy Summers by Stephen King

Adult Horror

August 3, 2021



Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?

How about everything.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: Another Stephen King book. How does he write so fast? How am I ever going to catch up? Someday I’ll read everything he’s written. This new book sounds like it has an intense plot and a complicated character.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey

Adult Historical Mystery

August 10, 2021



In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings—and a little bit obsessed with each other. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth’s house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks.

Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and seventeen-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth’s childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary?

Alternating between the two fateful summers, The Ophelia Girls is a suspense-filled exploration of mothers and daughters, illicit desire, and the perils and power of being a young woman.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: There’s so much creepy stuff happening in this story! I want to know about the weird drowning game. And who’s the childhood friend who’s interfering with this family’s life? So many mysteries to solve.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

Velvet Was The Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Adult Historical Thriller

August 17, 2021



1970s, Mexico City. Maite is a secretary who lives for one thing: the latest issue of Secret Romance. While student protests and political unrest consume the city, Maite escapes into stories of passion and danger.

Her next-door neighbor, Leonora, a beautiful art student, seems to live a life of intrigue and romance that Maite envies. When Leonora disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite finds herself searching for the missing woman—and journeying deeper into Leonora’s secret life of student radicals and dissidents.

Meanwhile, someone else is also looking for Leonora at the behest of his boss, a shadowy figure who commands goon squads dedicated to squashing political activists. Elvis is an eccentric criminal who longs to escape his own life: He loathes violence and loves old movies and rock ’n’ roll. But as Elvis searches for the missing woman, he comes to observe Maite from a distance—and grows more and more obsessed with this woman who shares his love of music and the unspoken loneliness of his heart.

Now as Maite and Elvis come closer to discovering the truth behind Leonora’s disappearance, they can no longer escape the danger that threatens to consume their lives, with hitmen, government agents, and Russian spies all aiming to protect Leonora’s secrets—at gunpoint.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: Goodreads calls it “an edgy, simmering historical novel for lovers of smoky noirs and anti-heroes.” I’m not sure about “smoky noirs,” but I can’t resist a good “anti-hero.” All my favorite characters are a little bit evil.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

The Flames Of Albiyon by Jean Z. Menzies

Adult Fantasy

September 2, 2021



A century since the monarchy was overthrown, the country of Albiyon has become a haven for its citizens, the young scholar Adairia included. Raised within the Albiyan university’s walls she has dedicated her life to the pursuit of knowledge. Preferring to hole up in the library than seek adventure elsewhere, she has grown accustomed to her comfortable routine . . . until the day everything changes. When she unwittingly awakens a sleeping dragon’s egg, Adairia is thrust into unfamiliar territory. Never having dreamed of dragons she is forced to seek out guidance from the exhilarating Isla, last direct descendent of the royal family and companion to a century’s old dragon. Together they must navigate the surprises to come; for beyond the prospect of a new-born dragon Albiyon is about to face a dangerous conspiracy that threatens the peace of their realm.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: This is not my normal type of book. It’s high fantasy, and it’s written by a YouTuber. Usually, those things both earn an automatic “No” from me. I’ve been following Jean on YouTube for years. She’s smart, articulate, and funny, and I have confidence that she can write a thought-provoking book.

 

Buy it on Amazon

 

 

 

 

From The Neck Up by Aliya Whiteley

Horror Short Stories

September 14, 2021



The new collection of beautiful, strange and disarming short stories from the award-winning Aliya Whiteley, deftly unpeels the strangeness of everyday life with her trademark wit. Witness the future of farming in a new Ice Age, or the artist bringing life to glass; the many-eyed monsters we carry and the secret cities inside our bodies.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: I’m always on the lookout for good short story collections. Aliya Whiteley is a prolific horror writer whose work has tons of rabid fans online, so I should probably see what the hype is about. The cover of this collection is certainly creepy! I hate it.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository





Fuzz: When Nature Breaks The Law by Mary Roach

Environment Nonfiction

September 14, 2021



What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: Mary Roach is one of my favorite nonfiction writers. Her work is fascinating and hilarious. She’s not afraid to ask the awkward questions that we’re all thinking about but are too afraid to say out loud. I’ll read anything she writes.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Adult Historical Fiction (?) Science Fiction (?) I don’t know!

September 28, 2021



The heroes of Cloud Cuckoo Land are trying to figure out the world around them: Anna and Omeir, on opposite sides of the formidable city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople; teenage idealist Seymour in an attack on a public library in present day Idaho; and Konstance, on an interstellar ship bound for an exoplanet, decades from now. Like Marie-Laure and Werner in All the Light We Cannot See, Anna, Omeir, Seymour, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders who find resourcefulness and hope in the midst of peril.

An ancient text—the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky—provides solace and mystery to these unforgettable characters. Doerr has created a tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us and those who will be here after we’re gone.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: “Excited” is the wrong word because I’m completely confused. What even is this book? I don’t understand the synopsis. I’m interested in the book because I love All The Light We Cannot See. It’s vivid and beautifully written. I even taught a class on it and didn’t end up hating it! Usually I loathe a book by the time I finish teaching a class. I like Anthony Doerr’s writing enough that I’m willing to try this confusing new thing.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

She Kills Me: The True Stories Of History’s Deadliest Women by Jennifer Wright

True Crime Nonfiction

September 28, 2021



A powerful collection of stories about women who murdered—for revenge, for love, and even for pleasure—rife with historical details that will have any true crime junkie on the edge of their seat.

In every tragic story, men are expected to be the killers. There are countless studies and works of art made about male violence. However, when women are featured in stories about murder, they are rarely portrayed as predators. They’re the prey. This common dynamic is one of the reasons that women are so enthralled by female murderers. They do the things that women aren’t supposed to do and live the lives that women aren’t supposed to want: lives that are impulsive and angry and messy and inconvenient. Maybe we feel bad about loving them, but we eat it up just the same. Residing squarely in the middle of a Venn diagram of feminism and true crime, She Kills Me tells the story of 40 women who murdered out of necessity, fear, revenge, and even for pleasure.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: If you’re a fan of Mary Roach, please check out Jennifer Wright’s work. Both authors have a similar tone. Their nonfiction is fast-paced and very readable. These are not dry textbooks! I’m a true crime junkie and can’t wait to get my hands on this book.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

The Death Of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

Adult Horror

October 19, 2021



Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town. Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man—one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him.

By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is deeply wrong at Lindridge Hall, and with the man she has so hastily bound her safety to.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: It’s being recommended for fans of Rebecca. That’s me! The synopsis is definitely giving me Rebecca vibes. And Jane Eyre vibes. And Bluebeard vibes. And Doctor Jekyll And Mr. Hyde vibes. With so many vibes, I have to read this book! It sounds like a compelling mystery.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

Dark Stars: New Tales Of Darkest Horror by John F.D. Taff (Editor)

Horror Anthology

November 2, 2021



Dark Stars is a tribute to horror’s long-standing short fiction legacy, featuring 11 terrifying novelettes from today’s most noteworthy authors.

Within these pages you’ll find tales of dead men walking, an insidious secret summer fling, an island harboring unspeakable power, and a dark hallway that beckons. You’ll encounter terrible monsters—both human and supernatural—and be forever changed. The stories in Dark Stars run the gamut from traditional to modern, from dark fantasy to neo-noir, from explorations of beloved horror tropes to the unknown—possibly unknowable—threats.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: This anthology is packed full of stories by amazing horror authors! Check it out if you like Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, Josh Malerman, or Caroline Kepnes. I’m excited to read stories from familiar authors and potentially discover a new favorite.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 




Which new releases are you excited to read?





 

 

19 comments:

  1. I didn’t know Mary Roach had a new book coming out. Cool!

    https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-most-anticipated-books-of-the-second-half-of-2021/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you know I saw The Final Girl and didn't think much about the title. Then I read a book featuring a horror writing, and now I know what a final girl is. Hope you enjoy them all!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I need to check out She Kills Me and Reputation. I have The Final Girl Support Group on my wish list too!

    Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love Aliya Whiteley! I'm a bit behind with her books but I've loved what I've read so far.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good list of books! Reputation looks really appealing to me and I've seen the Support Group on a couple lists.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for sharing these. I will look for Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light as well as Cloud Cuckoo Land. Fuzz is on my list, too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh Reputation sounds like such a fun read! Hope you'll enjoy all of these!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Velvet Was the Night is a popular choice this week. Hopefully you enjoy it if you read it!
    Here's my Top Ten Tuesday list this week.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm excited for the new Hendrix as well. Enjoy all these!

    Happy TTT!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fuzz sounds so fun!

    I hope you enjoy your reads when you can read them.

    Here's my post: https://readbakecreate.com/?p=441

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great list! I have a couple of these on my TBR, and just added Reputation - it sounds so fun!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Looks like a great list. I'm excited for the new Grady Hendrix and I'm with you on Anthony Doerr’s book. The synopsis confuses the heck out of me but I loved All the Light We Cannot See so I can't resist the new book.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lovely list! I am so looking forward to The Ophelia Girls! Hope we both enjoy it!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Okay so you have officially put some new books on my TBR! Some were already there (looking at you, Final Girl and Jane Lawrence), but Fuzz sounds amazing, as does Dark Stars (THOSE AUTHORS!) and a few others that I shall be checking out. Also, I didn't understand what the Anthony Doerr book was supposed to be either. Like, at all. I feel like I am supposed to want to read it, but also, I don't want to pay to feel dumb and confused, so I will wait to read some reviews first 😂

    ReplyDelete
  15. Reputation seems so good! But there are so many to come!

    ReplyDelete
  16. The Death of Jane Lawrence is goign on my tbr!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I love the idea of the final girl support group one! The high fantasy one might not be your normal kind of book, but it might be something I would like, so I'll have to look into it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. The Doerr novel seems to be a bit crazy right? Multiple storylines galore. Perhaps I will try the Mary Roach book!

    ReplyDelete