Diversity Titles for LibraryReads Consideration -- EarlyWord.com

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May 2023 releases -- LibraryReads nominations due April 1, 2023

Pub Date - as of 3/16/23

Sources, notes, GalleyChat tweets

Fiction / Thrillers / Legal

PRH/Random House

FirstClue newsletter, "How does Stacey Abrams do it all? Last year, she ran for Governor of Georgia while maintaining her voting-rights activism and apparently writing this book. The second in the Avery Keene duology (after While Justice Sleeps) sees Supreme Court clerk Keene back in the lawyer/amateur detective seatDetails of the inner workings of Washington, DC are strewn throughout the work and raise the interest level even further."

Adjei-Brenyah, Nana Kwame

PRH/Random House

DEBUT, FEB, Mara @mrlzbth, "Just started CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah last night. Brutal but very, very good. I loved FRIDAY BLACK so I'm not surprised this is also a stunning read!" -- NOV, Michelle M @blkMYmorris, "CHAIN GANG ALL-STARS by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is my next read. It's about female private prison gladiators who have to fight for their freedom. I've just started and the near future worldbuilding and the protagonist Thurwar draws me in." -- LJ Day of Dialog, Prepub Alert, "Fiction debuts with contemporary settings include Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's prison system-based CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS."

Agbaje-Williams, Ore

PRH/Random House

Andrienne @deienara, "THE THREE OF US pub date: 5/23, by Ore Agbaje-Williams is a character-driven literary fiction novel dissecting complex relationships from the point of view of a woman, her best friend, and her husband." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "In Nigerian British author Agbaje-Williams's auction-hot THE THREE OF US, a heretofore contented wife discovers the acrimony between her husband and best friend as they dance around her for first place in her attention (75,000-copy first printing)."

Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

Little, Brown and Company

LJ Prepub Alert, "In WHY FATHERS CRY AT NIGHT, Newbery Medalist and New York Times best-selling author Alexander (Swing) blends memoir and love poems, recalling his parent and his first years of marriage and fatherhood as he ponders learning to love (50,000-copy first printing)."

Biography & Autobiography / LGBTQ+

Mara @mrlzbth, "Just finished WE SEE EACH OTHER: A BLACK, TRANS JOURNEY THROUGH TV & FILM by Tre'vell Anderson and really appreciated their exploration of trans representation in media over time. I learned a lot and they provide many great suggestions for further reading/viewing!"

Fiction / Fantasy / Dragons & Mythical Creatures

Blackgoose, Moniquill

To Shape a Dragon's Breath

PRH/Random House

Trade Paperback

DEBUT, Jenna Marie @jenna_marie58, "TO SHAPE A DRAGON'S BREATH by Moniquill Blackgoose: 'A young Indigenous woman enters a colonizer-run dragon academy' yes yes yes yes yes here for this." -- JAN, Random House Queer Fiction panel, Wednesday, February 15th at 7 PM ET -- register here, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/queer-fiction-panel-tickets-520670458357? -- LJ Prepub Alert, "Set in an alternate 1840s New England, TO SHAPE A DRAGON'S BREATH features Indigenous teenager Anequs, honored by her people when she bonds with a newly hatched dragon but challenged by the repressive rules at her dragon school, run by Anglish conquerors; debuter Blackgoose is an enrolled member of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe."

Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / African American & Black

PRH/Random House

FUTUENDI GRATIA @thuglibrarian "MORE THAN I IMAGINED : What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew"by John Blake. Author is a CNN journalist who is biracial but hides it. His white mom vanished after his birth, & he asks where is my mother, and where do I belong?"

Design / Fashion & Accessories

LMR, Featured on ALMA book buzz. Video here: https://youtu.be/zA3Wv-TD0mE

Fiction / Short Stories (single author)

Dona Cleanwell Leaves Home

LJ Prepub Alert, "An award-winning writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that plumbs the Latina experience, Castillo (BLACK DOVE) unwinds stories exploring how women seek to break the boundaries that have been drawn for them and the secrets holding them back. Among the characters: Katia, who wants to join every good Sixties cause but is compelled by her father to seek out her happily liberated mother in Mexico and bring her back to the United States. The publisher hopes to bring Castillo to a larger audience; with a 40,000-copy first printing."

Fiction / Hispanic & Latino

LMR, HarlequinForLibraries @HQforLibraries, "What to read next? May we recommend a magical story that's Alice Hoffman meets Encanto" -- FEB, Nanette Donohue @surferrosa, "Looking forward to digging in to THE ENCHANTED HACIENDA by J.C. Cervantes, about a young woman who flees to her family home in Mexico after her life falls apart. Magic and romance (and a beautiful cover!) " -- LJ Prepub Alert, "Disappointed in love and life, Harlow Estrada returns home to THE ENCHANTED HACIENDA, where the women in her family purvey a gift she lacks, creating magic from flowers-but who knows what kind of magic might come her way as she runs the house in their absence"

Fiction / Action & Adventure

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea

Hardcover with dust jacket

DEBUT, Continued GC interest -- Publishers Summary, "For readers of OUTLAWED, PIRANESI, and THE NIGHT TIGER, a dazzling historical novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power. Named a Most Anticipated Novel by: Washington Post * Goodreads * LitHub * NetGalley's We Are Bookish * Debutiful * Our Culture * The Chicago Review of Books * The Rumpus * Tor.com."

Fiction / Historical / Colonial America & Revolution

DEBUT, LMR, S&S EducationLibrary @SSEdLib, "Inspired by a historical figure, THE EAST INDIAN by Brinda Charry is an exhilarating debut novel about the first native of the Indian subcontinent to arrive in Colonial America-for readers of Esi Edugyan and Yaa Gyasi." -- FEB, GC interest

DEBUT, LMR, librarylovefest @librarylovefest, "Okay...I started digging into BOY PARTS by Eliza Clark yesterday & this is totally my jam! If you love an unhinged, messy main character, you NEED to read this book. Irina is a photographer who takes lewd photos of average men. Dazzling exploration of gender & power."

PRH/Random House

DEBUT, MaraReads @MaraReads@mastodon.online, "I know very little about ballet, but DANCES by Nicole Cuffy totally grabbed me and made me feel immersed in the world of dance! An emotional story of a Black ballerina experiencing dizzying professional success along with heartbreaking personal turmoil. Highly recommended." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "Inaugural winner of the Chautauqua Janus Prize, Cuffy structures DANCES according to the basics of ballet as her Black heroine rises to become a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet while struggling with personal issues."

Fiction / African American & Black

Dalembert, Louis-Philippe

B&T Publisher Services

Trade Paperback

LJ Prepub Alert, "Haitian poet/novelist Dalembert addresses the killing of unarmed young Black men by the U.S. police, creating a composite portrait in young Emmett, murdered in Milwaukee, WI. The narrative moves from the Pakistani shopkeeper who dialed 911; to accounts from Emmett's former girlfriend, friends, teachers, and college football coach; to the march and memorial service following his death."<br>

Hardcover with dust jacket

LJ Prepub Alert, "Partners Sasha and Jesse are thrilled to escape Brooklyn for the holidays, having received an invitation to the country home of two older, distinguished lesbians, news host Jules Todd and her psychotherapist partner, Miranda. They're joined by Jesse's best friend, Lou, and Lou's latest lover, Darcy, whose queer confidence Sasha envies. It will make for roller-coaster week. Davis wrote the YA novel EVERYTHING MUST GO; with an 80,000-copy first printing."<br>

Fiction / World Literature / India / 21st Century

Light at the End of the World

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "Author of the International Dublin long-listed AN OUTLINE OF THE REPUBLIC, Deb compresses two centuries of India's history and future possibilities into four main sections-the futuristic, pollution-beset 'City of Brume,' Bhopal-haunted 'Claustropolis: 1984,' Partition-set 'Paranoir: 1947,' and 'The Line of Faith: 1859,' with British soldiers seeking fugitives during the Sepoy Rebellion."<br>

Fiction / African American & Black / Women

Denton-Hurst, Tembe

DEBUT, GC interest -- LJ Prepub Alert, "From a staff writer at New York magazine's 'The Strategist,' Denton-Hurst's HOMEBODIES features a young Black woman fired from her media job who writes a scorching denunciation of the racism and sexism she encountered in the business that goes viral (75,000-copy first printing) " -- LMR, librarylovefest @librarylovefest, "Mickey, a queer & Black writer, loses her job in media & writes a letter about her experience facing racism. It gets no attention...at first. Then, she unexpectedly goes viral.Propulsive & insightful storytelling, this is not a debut to miss!"

GC interest -- Publishers Summary, "BRIDESMAIDS meets THE GUNCLE IN this clever LGBTQIA+ romantic story by the author Steven Rowley calls 'unforgettable'."

Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / African American & Black

LJ Prepub Alert, "Moving to a predominantly white Colorado community in 2013, Black poet/scholar Dungy, a National Book Critics Circle finalist, learned that the community had rules about what she could or could not plant in her garden. Here she uses her efforts to diversify her patch of land as a metaphor for the value of cultural diversity in general and a consideration of how best to protect the environment."

Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / Arab & Middle Eastern

PRH/Random House

LMR.Matt Johnson @MattJMcLoughlin, "LAST TO EAT, LAST TO LEARN by Pashtana Durraniis a @MsMagazine Pick for Most Anticipated Feminist Book of 2023, & #Pashtana's story is one of feminism in a society where women have been stripped of their identities, livelihoods, & basic freedoms."

Earling, Debra Magpie

The Lost Journals of Sacajewea

Ingram Publisher Services

Hardcover Paper over boards

GC interest, Publishers Summary, "From the award-winning author of PERMA RED comes a devastatingly beautiful novel that challenges prevailing historical narratives of Sacajewea."

Biography & Autobiography / Social Activists

Hardcover with dust jacket

JenniferSchultz @Jennsreads, "My current read is KING: A LIFE by Jonathan Eig. As a fan of Eig's Muhammad Ali bio, this was one of my most anticipated books of the year. A incredible and gripping look at a man who was extraordinary but also very real and human." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "With KING, the New York Times best-selling Eig ( ALI), a former senior writer for the Wall Street Journal, draws on recently declassified FBI files to create a bold new study of Martin Luther King Jr. (100,000-copy first printing)."

Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / African American & Black

LJ Prepub Alert, "Shot five times at age 19 by a Pittsburgh police officer (a case of mistaken identity that amounted to racial profiling), Ford awoke paralyzed from the waist down and learned he was a new father; a decade later, he recounts his path to social activism and AN UNSPEAKABLE HOPE for himself and his son."

Hardcover with dust jacket

GC interest -- Publishers Summary, "CAN'T I GO INSTEAD follows the lives of the daughter of a Korean nobleman and her maidservant in the early 20th century. When the daughter's suitor is arrested as a Korean Independence activist, and she is implicated during the investigation, she is quickly forced into marriage to one of her father's Japanese employees and shipped off to the United States. At the same time, her maidservant is sent in her mistress's place to be a comfort woman to the Japanese Imperial army."

Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths

PRH/Random House

LMR, Michelle Lauren Addo @MichelleAddo, "REMAIN SILENT by Robyn Gigl Attorney & LGBTQ+ activist Robyn Gigl returns w. a riveting new legal thriller set on the Jersey Shore & starring Erin McCabe - a protagonist who, like the author herself, is a transgender lawyer."

Fiction / Cultural Heritage

Hakes, Jasmin Iolani

DEBUT, FEB, Janet Lockhart @janet@mastodonbooks.net, "Jasmin 'Iolani Hakes uses the rhythm and chants of hula to weave a riveting story of mothers & daughters, belonging and identity, and holding onto your culture in the face of racism and greed.-- JAN, LMR, Librarylovefest @librarylovefest."Join us on 1/19/23 at 7 PM ET for a night of literary delights, https://www.crowdcast.io/e/writerstowatch/register, [including] Jasmin Iolani Hakes/HULA. Set in Hilo, Hawai'i, a sweeping saga of tradition, culture, family, history, and connection that unfolds through the lives of three generations of women." --DEC, LMR, librarylovefest @librarylovefest, "Okay, this debut is stunning! Not to mention that beautiful cover. HULA is about Hi'i, the youngest of Hilo's Naupaka dynasty, who is trying to connect to her community and lineage. "...HULA is a love letter to a stolen paradise and its people."

Fiction / African American & Black / Women

LJ Prepub Alert, "Stung by the betrayal of surrogate father Omar even as she continues puzzling over her biological father's long-ago death, successful financier Olivia seeks renewal by moving to a summer home in SANS (Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Nineveh), a quiet Hamptons enclave for the Black elite since the 1930s. Unfortunately, developers are on their way to SANS, too. Following Hostin's top-selling debut, SUMMER ON THE BLUFFS, which is being made into a film by Hostin's new production company; with a 200,000-copy first printing."

Biography & Autobiography / Fashion

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "From the first Black American female designer to win a CFDA Award, WILDFLOWER takes James from high school dropout to designer of a sustainable fashion line showcasing traditional African design to founder of the booming social justice nonprofit Fifteen Percent Pledge (businesses pledge to dedicate 15 percent of their shelf space to Black-owned brands)."

Hardcover with dust jacket

Matthew @fine_plan, "THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by Cassandra Khaw: The little mermaid meets mad science in a crueler, grosser, but fascinating world. It may be vicious, but maybe love can bloom and kindness could exist? I'm loving this trend of terrifying mermaids." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "In British Fantasy winner/Bram Stoker finalist Khaw's THE SALT GROWS HEAVY, a mermaid murders her husband, destroys his kingdom, and runs off with a mysterious doctor to the taiga, where they discover a village full of creepy children whose blood sport jeopardizes their visitors (125,000-copy first printing)."

History / African American & Black

You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live

Hardcover with dust jacket

LJ Prepub Alert, "Looking at footage of George Floyd's death, Black journalist Kix was reminded of the famous image taken in 1963 in Birmingham, AL, showing a white policeman whose dog is leaping ferociously at a Black teenager. That made him ponder the consequences of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's 10-week campaign in 1963 to end segregation in Birmingham, the most segregated city in United States. With a 60,000-copy first printing."

Fiction / Asian American

Kimsbookstack @KimMcGee@mastodonbooks.net, "YELLOWFACE. An author dies and her less than successful author friend/enemy steals her unpublished manuscript for her own. Guilt, imposter syndrome, moral angst all in the impossibly competitive world of publishing. Fantastic!" -- Susan Balla @suebee135, "currently reading and loving YELLOWFACE by @kuangrf . Struggling writer steals the work of her frenemy, a very successful writer, after witnessing her death. Cultural appropriation, plagiarism, simply despicable behavior "-- LJ Prepub Alert, "The careers of June Hayward and Athena Liu have paralleled-both Yalies, they published debuts in the same year. But while Athena gains critical acclaim for her cross-genre work, June's sales lag. When Athena dies in a terrible accident, June steals her highly anticipated new novel celebrating the Chinese laborers who contributed to the British and French war efforts during World War I. Now she's basking in glory, but news of her theft is about to break. From the author of the multi-award-nominated "Poppy War" trilogy; with a 150,000-copy first printing"

Fiction / Asian American

LJ Prepub Alert, "The careers of June Hayward and Athena Liu have paralleled-both Yalies, they published debuts in the same year. But while Athena gains critical acclaim for her cross-genre work, June's sales lag. When Athena dies in a terrible accident, June steals her highly anticipated new novel celebrating the Chinese laborers who contributed to the British and French war efforts during World War I. Now she's basking in glory, but news of her theft is about to break. From the author of the multi-award-nominated "Poppy War" trilogy; with a 150,000-copy first printing"

Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Gay

Hardcover with dust jacket

LJ Prepub Alert, "Barnett Durang's widowed mother knows that he's gay, but she doesn't yet know that he's getting married-at her farm, no less, in a small and not altogether tolerant Louisiana town. And 200 people will be attending. From the author of A STAR IS BORED, a debut novel based on his experiences as Carrie Fisher's assistant; with a 60,000-copy first printing."

Fiction / Small Town & Rural

Lin-Greenberg, Karin

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "Chinese American author Lin-Greenberg uses the closing of a small-town mall in upstate New York as the locus of multiple stories. While the lone hair stylist at Sunshine Clips watches instructional YouTube videos on the sly, her son's high school friend, a magician's assistant and cashier at the mall, counters unwanted attention from an oddball boy. She shares that secret only with the mall's loner bookstore manager. From a short-fiction champ: FAULTY PREDICTIONS won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and VANISHED won the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize."

Fiction / Asian American

DEBUT, LJ Prepub Alert, "Chinese-born engineer Tony, now a Manhattan doorman. Tony's first-generation daughter, Tammy, caught between her dreams and her family's ambitions for her. And Oliver, a handsome white lawyer in Tony's building contending with his family's troubled past. As their stories unfold over three decades, they are brought together by a terrible act of violence. Luo debuts with a 100,000-copy first printing."

Mac Sweeney, Naoíse

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "A University of Vienna archaeology professor, Mac Sweeney argues that Western civilization is not a single culture stretching back to ancient Greece, a concept conjured by collective imagination. She makes her case by portraiture, moving from multiracial Greek historian Herodotus and influential poet Phyliss Wheatley, born in Africa and enslaved in the British colony of Massachusetts, to medieval Arab scholar Al-Kindi and British statesman William Gladstone."

Fiction / World Literature / Caribbean & West Indies

LJ Prepub Alert, "Fired from her job when her affair with a married government official offends Trinidad's conservative society, Bianca Bridge takes a job with makeup artist Obadiah Cortland, a blazing new star in the island's beauty community who hides his up-from-nothing background. She joins forces with Obadiah to assert herself when her former lover keeps causing her problems. From multiple award finalist Mc Ivor (e.g., the Commonwealth Short Story Prize), author of the collection WHERE THERE ARE MONSTERS; with a 75,000-copy first printing."

DEBUT, FEB, Jenna Marie @jenna_marie58, "Obsessed with the cover for OUR HIDEOUS PROGENY by C.E. McGill. And it's a queer Frankenstein!! Yes please."

Fiction / Short Stories (single author)

No One Will Come Back for Us

Trade Paperback

Matthew @fine_plan, "Premee Mohamed's NO ONE WILL COME BACK FOR US (May 16) was a wonderfully creepy speculative fiction story collection." -- Mara @mrlzbth, "Ooh, what a wonderfully eerie cover!" -- Matthew @fine_plan, "There are all these stories of local folk gods that are amazing. I want more. :D" -- Author Bio, https://www.premeemohamed.com/bios, "Premee Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta."

Fiction / Cultural Heritage

Muchemi-Ndiritu, Irene

PRH/Random House

Dial Press Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback

GC interest -- Publishers Summary, "A privileged young Kenyan woman flees the expectations of her mother for a life in New York that challenges all her beliefs about race, love, and family in this rich and engaging debut."

Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

GC interest -- Publishers Summary, "Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by The Millions. A vibrant new voice blends Native folklore and the search for identity in a fierce debut work of personal history."

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, " In Nakamura's latest, two detectives investigate the murder of The Rope Artist-an instructor in kinbaku, a form of rope bondage with both spiritual and sexual overtones-with Togashi finding himself pulled toward his own unorthodox desires and straight-arrow colleague Hayama seeking the truth in a case that's getting out of control"

Fiction / African American & Black / Women

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "In Pushcart Prize-nominated Neal's NOTES ON HER COLOR a young Black Indigenous woman gifted with the ability to change the color of her skin finds self-respect (and a means of escaping crushing family expectations) with a queer, dark-skinned piano instructor."

Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional

Ingram Publisher Services

LJ Prepub Alert, "A first-generation Chinese American with a seafaring father and a seamstress mother, Pen/Faulkner Award finalist Ng (BONE) recounts being raised in San Francisco's Chinatown by the community's Orphan Bachelors, older men without wives or children owing to the infamous Exclusion Act."

Fiction / Family Life

JAN, DEBUT, LMR, HachetteLib, "Love [this] read from debut author, Janika Ozarichly captivating." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "Pushcart Prize-winning Oza's A HISTORY OF BURNING opens with Pirbhai's being taken from India to work on the East African Railway for the British and moves toward the expulsion of his descendants from Uganda in 1972 (50,000-copy first printing)." -- LMR, Norton Library Marketing @WWNortonLibrary, "featured in the ALMA book buzz https://youtu.be/zA3Wv-TD0mE "

Fiction / Alternative History

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?

Hardcover with dust jacket

Mara @mrlzbth, "I really enjoyed DID YOU HEAR ABOUT KITTY KARR? by Crystal Smith Paul--a compelling story of Hollywood glamour that explores what happens when someone feels compelled to mask parts of themselves to succeed. A great pick for historical fiction fans." -- JAN, Nanette @nanette@mastodonbooks.net, " it hooked me from the beginning. Iconic actress Kitty Karr has died, leaving her fortune to three sisters who seem to be no relation. But as Kitty's life story is told, her secrets--and her connection to the St. John sisters--are revealed". -- LJ Prepub Alert, " Paul's DID YOU HEAR ABOUT KITTY KARR? features Elise St. John, a young Black woman who is startled that she and her sisters have inherited the multimillion-dollar estate of star Kitty Karr Tate; then she learns that Kitty was actually her grandmother, passing for white (100,000-copy first printing)." -- Publishers Summary, "A multigenerational saga that traverses the Jim Crow South, the glamour of old Hollywood, and the seductive draw of present-day showbiz as secrets split a family tree into Black, white, and something in between"

Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Amateur Sleuth

Polito, Frank Anthony

PRH/Random House

Trade Paperback

LMR, Larissa @Laroodoo, "REHEARSED TO DEATH by @fapolito is #2 in a VERY fun #quozy mystery series that stars a gay couple who renovate houses for their reality TV show. AND the author was once on an episode of #HGTV #HouseHunters, so it's based on his experience!"

Biography & Autobiography / LGBTQ+

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "Delighted by all the queer stories she encountered when she moved to Brooklyn, book publicist Possanza uses LESBIAN LOVE STORY to recover the personal histories of lesbians in the 20th century and muse about replacing contemporary misogynistic society with something markedly lesbian."

Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "In UNCLE OF THE YEAR, Tony, Drama Desk, and Critics Choice Award nominee Rannells wonders at age 40 what success means and whether he wants a husband and family"

PRH/Random House

RobinB @robinsbooks@mastodonbooks.net, "Steven Rowley's THE GUNCLE was an under-the-radar favorite among readers and his next book, THE CELEBRANTS sounds as appealing and also has a fabulous cover."

Social Science / Activism & Social Justice

Sengeh, David Moinina

Flatiron Books: A Moment of Lift Book

Hardcover with dust jacket

LJ Prepub Alert, "Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education and Chief Innovation Officer for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation in Sierra Leone, Sengeh was shocked by opposition to his lifting the policy banning pregnant girls from attending school. Everyone, he felt, deserved an education. Here he uses his battle to reverse the ban as a template for a radical reimagining of engrained practices, drawing on personal experiences from racial profiling as a Harvard student to combatting algorithmic bias as a data scientist to envision a more just society. The first title from Melinda French Gates's Moment of Lift Books."

LMR, HarlequinForLibraries @HQforLibraries, "What to read next? May we recommend a novel for fans of THE ROSIE PROJECT with elements of Groundhog Day " -- LJ Prepub Alert, "One terrible day, Cassandra Dankworth is dumped by her boyfriend and loses her PR job for not being a people person. By evening, she's delighted when her ex shows up, but the next morning the whole sequence starts again, and she finds herself repeating the same unbearable 24 hours, determined to fix what's wrong with her life until she realizes she's been focusing on the wrong problems. Best-selling YA author Smale, who discovered that she was autistic as an adult, features a neurodivergent protagonist; with a 50,000-copy first printing."

Fiction / African American & Black / Mystery & Detective

LJ Prepub Alert, "Top anchor at Chicago TV station WLTV, Morgan Shaw believes that someone wants her dead and asks Black PI loner Ashe Cayne, a principled loner, to protect her. At first, he refuses; bodyguarding isn't his thing. But he leaps to investigate when Morgan's tires are slashed, and that pulls him into Morgan's own investigation-meant to keep her on top of the ratings-of a white cop's shooting of an unarmed Black man. From New York Times best-selling diet doctor Smith, third in a series launched with The Unspoken, whcih is serving as the basis of a BET+ series; with a 75,000-copy first printing."

Biography & Autobiography / Historical

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "Windham-Campbell Award-winning South African writer Steinberg shows how the marriage of Winnie and Nelson Mandela reflects the course of South African history and tensions within the antiapartheid movement, as Winnie moved toward supporting armed insurrection while Nelson was jailed."

Fiction / Asian American

Trade Paperback

DEBUT, LJ Prepub Alert, "A musician, translator, and splendid poet (e.g., the LJ best-booked THE RUINED ELEGANCE), Paris-based Sze-Lorrain here offers a debut novel in stories. 'Cooking for Madame Chiang' (1946) features two cooks caught up in a tragedy; 'Death at the Wukang Mansion' (1966), a disgraced dancer; and 'The White Piano' (1996), a pianist in Paris assaulted when a piano arrives from Singapore. In 'The Invisible Window' (2016), three women gather at a French cathedral after being exiled following the Tiananmen Square massacre."<br>

Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / Hispanic American Studies

Hardcover with dust jacket

LJ Prepub Alert, "A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose books include the New York Times best-selling DEEP DOWN DARK and the Carnegie Medal long-listed novel THE LAST GREAT ROAD BUM, Tobar draws on personal experience as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and conversations with his students to clarify what the term Latino truly signifies and challenge the stereotyping and harassment frequently experienced by Latinx people today. With a 100,000-copy first printing."<br>

Fiction / Historical / World War II

Little, Brown and Company

LMR, HachetteLib, "Love [this] read from the incomparable Luis Alberto Urrearichly captivating." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "In 1943, Irene Woodward pushes aside her abusive fianc in New York to enlist with the Red Cross, befriending Midwesterner Dorothy Dunford as they head toward Europe on a journey that takes them from the Battle of the Bulge to the liberation of Buchenwald. Urrea, a National Book Critics Circle fiction finalist for THE HOUSE OF BROKEN ANGELS and Pulitzer Prize finalist for the nonfiction THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY, was inspired to celebrated women's contributions to World War II by his mother's own Red Cross service." -- featured on the ALMA book buzz -- https://youtu.be/zA3Wv-TD0mE "

Fiction / Family Life / Marriage & Divorce

PRH/Random House

Random House Trade Paperbacks

Trade Paperback

DEBUT, Janet Schneider @janet_schneider, "Am still thinking about the layered characters in LATE BLOOMERS by Deepa Varadarajan, coming in May. Powerful, heartwarming, thoughtful look at parents and adult children of an Indian American family set in Austin."

Verghese, Abraham

Ingram Publisher Services

Janet Lockhart @HartGami, "THE COVENANT OF WATER begins with a 12 year girl traveling to Kerala to meet her soon-to-be husband. What follows is a sprawling saga that explores how we define family. Another beautifully written novel" -- JAN, Janet Schneider @janet_schneider, "Spring holds alert for this one: THE COVENANT OF WATER (May) by Abraham Verghese, author CUTTING FOR STONE, spanning the years 1900 to 1977 in Kerala, on South India's Malabar Coast. Three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "Following 2009's CUTTING FOR STONE, which sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone, practicing physician Verghese's new work unfolds within the Christian community of Kerala, on southern India's Malabar Coast. At its heart is a family that suffers successive tragedies, with at least one person in each generation drowning to death. Despite its venerable traditions-the community supposedly dates from the time of the apostles-family matriarch Big Ammachi (i.e., 'Big Mother') knows change is coming." -- NOV GalleyChat, Patty Suss @pattysuss, "Even though it's not coming out until May 2023, I'm beyond EXCITED to read Abraham Verghese's next book COVENANT OF WATER."

Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense

DEBUT, Nanette@nanette@mastodonbooks.net, "THE NIGERWIFE has been on my list...excited to see genre fiction set in Lagos! I've read plenty of literary fiction with a Nigerian setting but genre fiction is my true love." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "One of the Nigerwives-foreign women married to rich Nigerian men-Nicole Oruwari left drizzly London behind to lead a life of luxury in Lagos. When she disappears, her estranged auntie Claudine boards a plane for Lagos and starts investigating, discovering things about Nicole that an aunt would never want to know about a niece. From London-born, Brooklyn-based debuter Walters"

Hardcover with dust jacket

LJ Prepub Alert, "When high-society octogenarian Aldwych West falls for gorgeous New York City Ballet soloist August Dupond, the young man is soon living in the imperious Aldwych's apartment in a sort of sponsor/lover/friendship blend. Then August starts bringing home lovers of his own, and a woman in Aldwych's circle takes an interest in his career. From a National Book Foundation honoree for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters."

Political Science / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism

Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

LJ Prepub Alert, "When the Chinese government refused to renew Wall Street Journal reporter Wong's press credentials and shoved him from mainland China in 2019, he moved to Hong Kong and continued reporting on Chinese politics from afar. Here, he relies on conversations with Party insiders and grassroots members, scholars and diplomats, plus analyses of official speeches and documents to offer a portrait of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, and his rise to extraordinary power."

Fiction / Family Life

The Language of Love and Loss

PRH/Random House

A John Scognamiglio Book

LMR, Matt Johnson @MattJMcLoughlin. "Noah Yorke returns home when his mother is diagnosed with ALS & unearths the ghosts of his complicated youth that he thought he'd left behind in Bart Yate's brilliant THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE AND LOSS." -- NOV, LMR, Michelle Lauren Addo @MichelleAddo, "When his mother is diagnosed with ALS, a sarcastic, complicated artist reluctantly returns to his New Hampshire hometown and all the ghosts he left behind."

June 2023 releases -- LibraryReads nominations due May 1, 2023

Pub Date - as of 3/16/23

Sources, notes, GalleyChat tweets

Abdel Gawad, Aisha

PRH/Random House

DEBUT, LJ Preub Alert, "Twin sisters Amira and Lina, who live in a Muslim neighborhood in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, are graduating from high school. But their excitement is dimmed by their troublesome older brother's return from prison, a police raid on a local business that sets off protests, and a sudden act of violence that pulls everyone apart. A story of family, community, and Islamophobia; from Pushcart Prize winner Gawad."

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "In THE WIND KNOWS MY NAME, the celebrated Allende blends two bitter tales of separation: in 1938 Vienna, Samuel Adler is placed on a Kindertransport train by his mother so that he can escape the Nazis, while in 2019 Arizona, Anita Daz is pulled from her mother at the U.S. border after they have fled El Salvador for safety."

Fiction / Short Stories (single author)

Bazterrica, Agustina

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird

Trade Paperback

Andrienne @deienara, "Thanks to @Joe_Jones for the heads up for this 'brutal' and darkly humorous story collection from my fave author Agustina Bazterrica NINETEEN CLAWS AND A BLACK BIRD ." -- RobinB @robinsbooks@mastodonbooks.net, "Those who liked TENDER IS THE FLESH by Agustina Bazterrica may be interested in her new book of short stories, NINETEEN CLAWS AND A BLACK BIRD, now on @edelweiss_squad."

Comics & Graphic Novels / Nonfiction / Biography & Memoir

Hardcover Paper over boards

LJ Prepub Alert, "A Pulitzer Prize winner for Editorial Cartooning, Bell uses the graphic format to elucidate the conversation parents must have with Black children about racism and its concurrent threat of violence, recalling his mother explaining why he couldn't play with a white friend's water gun. As he considers the long-term impact of such conversations, he faces the need to have 'the talk' with his own son. With a 100,000-copy first printing."

PRH/Random House

GC interest, FEB., Online author event on 3/28 featuring Lauren Grodstein, Deborah Willis, Patrick Worrall, and Katharine Beutner. Hosted by @jwbookworm! -- https://tinyurl.com/54tf9s82 -- LJ Prepub Alert, "An Edmund White Award winner for her debut, ALCESTIS, Beutner draws on the actual 1897 disappearance of a Mount Holyoke student in KILLINGLY, a gothic tale that plumbs missing Bertha's secrets and those of her loner friend, Agnes."

Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy

Trade Paperback

LJ Prepub Alert, " After debuting with the all-star A PROPOSAL THEY CAN'T REFUSE, Caa cooks up A DISH BEST SERVED HOT, featuring a single dad who falls for his daughter's teacher but jeopardizes their relationship with actions (undertaken for familial duty) of which she disapproves (50,000-copy first printing).

Fiction / Thrillers / Crime

Hardcover with dust jacket

HOT, Mara @mrlzbth, "ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by S.A. Cosby is another book that had me totally riveted till the last page. A small town's Black sheriff investigates a school shooting that left both a beloved white teacher and the young Black shooter dead. Highly recommended, hoping for a sequel!" -- JenniferSchultz @Jennsreads, "a gripping and complex thriller about a Black sheriff in a small VA town grappling with a serial killer and rising emotions over Confederate statues." -- Janet Lockhart @HartGami, "Titus Crowne comes home to Charon County, becomes its first black sheriff, and finds himself confronting an evil with deep roots. Add me to the growing fan club of ALL THE SINNERS BLEED," -- FEB, Vicki Rock @VickiRock11, "had a hard time putting it down. Crime fiction readers will enjoy." -- First Clue newsletter, Book of the Week, "A school shooting in fictional Charon County, VA, reveals horror and catalyzes reckoning in S.A. Cosby's eagerly awaited follow-up to RAZORBLADE TEARS. This is, unsurprisingly, a masterpiece of Southern noir, but that's selling it short: it's a fantastic novel, period. Join Titus and his meticulously drawn, flawed family, colleagues, and townsfolk for a deep introspection on how evil begets evil and good begets good. And watch for the gripping movie that's sure to spring from Cosby's pages."-Henrietta Verma -- LJ Prepub Alert, "Disgusted by the racist police force he encounters when he returns to his small Southern hometown, FBI agent Titus Crown tosses his name in the ring and becomes the town's first Black sheriff. A year later, after his deputies shoot a young Black man to death, he investigates what happened and finds himself on the trail of a serial killer. From the author of the New York Times best-selling RAZORBLADE TEARS."

PRH/Random House

DEBUT, Mara @mrlzbth, "My top rave this month is LUCKY RED by Claudia Cravens, which I sped through and absolutely adored. A plucky orphan turned prostitute in the mythic Old West falls in love with a dashing female gunfighter in this action-packed tale with great characters and a thrilling plot." -- Random House Queer Fiction panel, Wednesday, February 15th at 7 PM ET -- register here, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/queer-fiction-panel-tickets-520670458357?

Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "An award-winning Canadian author whose tree-planting memoir, EATING DIRT, was a No. 1 national best seller in Canada, Gill returns with another memoir, this time plumbing her life as the daughter of an Indian father and English mother who met and married in 1960s London. The obstacles her parents faced at the time (not so open to interracial unions) and issues she faced growing up-what does the social construct person of color mean for her, and why does she sometimes feel distant from her father?-are delineated here."

Hardcover with dust jacket

DEBUT, LJ Prepub Alert, "Holed up in a Manila nursing home with a serious heart condition, Lito Macaraeg writes to his estranged journalist son in the United States, offering him a scoop about a secret meeting between Imelda Marcos and Corazon Aquino on the night Corazon's husband was reputedly killed by Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos. How does Lito know about the meeting? He was Corazon's chauffeur. From a PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow; with a 35,000-copy first printing."

FUTUENDI GRATIA @thuglibrarian, CROW MARY by Kathleen Grissom. Inspired by the true story of Crow Mary, an indigenous woman in 19th-century North America. In 1872, sixteen-year-old 'Goes First', a Crow Native woman, marries Abe Farwell, a white fur trader who he renamed Mary."

Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Historical

Ingram Publisher Services

Trade Paperback

LesaHolstine @LesaHolstine, "UNNATURAL ENDS by Christopher Huang - England, 1921. 3 adopted possible heirs & a trap for them set years earlier by their father. Unusual twists & a really twisted father" -- Contributor Bio, "Christopher Huang grew up in Singapore, an only child in a family tree that expands dramatically sideways at his parents' generation. He moved to Canada after his National Service,"

Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

Hardcover with dust jacket

Lj Prepub Alert, "Can you imagine growing up in an orange grove in Florida, with Disneyland being built nearby? That's what Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Hull's childhood was like, and it wasn't all happy. Even as the natural landscape fell to Disneyfication, the polarity between her sometimes dangerously dreamy father and ambitious Brooklyn-born mother made for confusion. Hull finally realized that she had to leave home, especially as her own sexuality emerged. With a 75,000-copy first printing."

PRH/Random House

MaraReads @MaraReads@mastodon.online, "My 'must rave' book this month is LOOT by Tania James, engrossing historical fiction about a woodcarver in Mysore drafted to help make a wooden tiger automaton for the Sultan under the tutelage of a French clock maker. Great memorable characters coupled with a moving story." --LJ Prepub Alert, " In lates 1700s India, 17-year-old Abbas works under French clockmaker Lucien du Leze to create a massive tiger automaton for Tipu Sultan (called the Tiger of Mysore), then returns to apprentice with du Leze in France and eventually heads to England to rescue his tiger, which British forces treated as Loot."

And Then He Sang a Lullaby

Ingram Publisher Services

DEBUT, LJ Prepub Alert, "Track star August left Enugu City, Nigeria, for one of the country's universities far from his domineering sisters and thoughts of the mother he never knew, and he's doing pretty well, making friends and enjoying his studies. But he feels relentlessly pulled toward the openly gay Segun, who works at a local cybercafe and won't get involved unless August can commit wholeheartedly. Then Nigeria's notorious antigay laws are passed. The inaugural title in Roxane Gay's new imprint."

History / African American & Black

LJ Prepub Alert, "Amid current conversations about the fate of the white working class, Kelley provides an important reminder that the Black working class has been central to the story of labor in the United States. Her assessment covers two centuries, from her earliest known ancestor, an enslaved blacksmith, to laundresses, Pullman porters, and domestic maids, to the essential workers of the COVID pandemic. Kelley is director of the Center for the Study of the American South."

Comics & Graphic Novels / Adaptations

Stamped from the Beginning

PRH/Random House

LJ Prepub Alert, "Here is a graphic-format version of MacArthur fellow Kendi's groundbreaking best seller, STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING, with art furnished by Gill, chair of the MFA in Visual Narrative at Boston University and creator of the award-winning graphic novel series STRANGE FRUIT: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History."

Fiction / Family Life / Marriage & Divorce

You Can't Stay Here Forever

LJ Prepub Alert, "After her dashing young husband is killed in a car wreck, Ellie Huang learns that he was having an affair with one of her colleagues and impetuously cashes in his life insurance to fund a sojourn at the fabled Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France, with best friend Mable Chou. There, they share long, leisurely dinners with a couple they meet-until secrets boil over. Probing not just love and loss but interracial relationships and issues surrounding Asian American assimilation."

Biography & Autobiography / Women

PRH/Random House

LJ prepub Alert, "As a girl in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Mahfouz was denied an education but still entertained Defiant Dreams, teaching herself mathematics at age 16 and sneaking into Pakistan to take the SATs; she eventually escaped to the United States and is now a quantum computing researcher at Tufts University."

Fiction / Short Stories (single author)

Makhene, Magogodi Oamphe

KaiteStover @MarianLiberryan, "Short stories can be a hard sell for me but INNARDS @MagogodiMakhene links them in an absorbing series spanning early years of apartheid to its dissolution." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "Born in apartheid-era South Africa and now living in New York, Rona Jaffe Award and Caine Prize honoree Makhene offers linked stories visiting the residents of the Black township of Soweto in Johannesburg. The fiercely conceived stories in this first collection feature a duplicitous former freedom fighter, a girl rendered mute by witnessing a burning body, and twins locked in relentless battle."

History / African American & Black

Martin, Rachel Louise

A Most Tolerant Little Town

Susan Balla @suebee135, "Read A MOST TOLERANT LITTLE TOWN : THE EXPLOSIVE BEGINNING OF SCHOOL DESEGREGATION by Rachel Louise Martin. Not sure why I'm still surprised that people were this horrible, but I am." -- LJ Prepub Alert, "As a graduate student participating in a Southern oral history project, Martin visited the small town in Tennessee whose school became the first in the former Confederacy to undergo court-mandated desegregation. She found to her dismay that people weren't eager to talk. Years later, she returned, interviewing over 60 townsfolk-including some of the first students to desegregate the school-to ferret out secrets and discover what really happened in 1956."

History / African American & Black

Sleeping with the Ancestors

LJ Prepub Alert, "As founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, McGill-a former field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation-travels throughout the entire country to spend the night in former slave dwellings. His efforts, and the events surrounding them, are meant to deepen our understanding of enslavement in the United States and highlight often hidden history. With a 25,000-copy first printing."

Fiction / World Literature / Africa / West Africa

Medie, Peace Adzo

LMR, HachetteLib @HachetteLib@mastodonbooks.net, "Very much looking forward to NIGHTBLOOM by Peace Adzo Medie (her debut was HIS ONLY WIFE)." -- Lj Prepub Alert, "Following the Reese's Book Club Pick HIS ONLY WIFE, Medie's NIGHTBLOOM features Selasi and Akorfa, cousins and best female friends in Ghana until Selasi becomes angry and withdrawn for reasons that take decades to emerge."

Biography & Autobiography / Social Activists

LJ Prepub Alert, "U.S. journalist Lekas Miller fell in love with Syrian Salem Rizk in Istanbul, where they were both reporting on the Syrian civil war. When Turkey began clamping down on refugees, leaving Salem with nowhere to go (he could not return to Syria), she worked her way through his asylum claims and the U.S. ban on Muslim immigrants to bring him to the United States as her husband. Here she recounts their story and those of similar couples while plumbing the history of discriminatory laws worldwide that have restricted travel."

Fiction / Thrillers / Crime

Ingram Publisher Services

DEBUT, a Times of London Crime Novel of the Year --iNews, UK, , "the Muslim women who are transforming crime fiction"-- https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/things-will-never-be-the-same-again-the-muslim-women-who-are-transforming-crime-fiction-1764777

Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

Nance, Sarafina El-Badry

PRH/Random House

GC interest -- Publishers Summary, "In a beautifully written and science-packed debut memoir, Egyptian-American astrophysicist Sarafina Nance shares her personal story of overcoming sexism, racism, and adversity, and appreciating the most important moments and people in her life by focusing on her lifelong love of the stars."