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Kelsey Ford: New Year, New You: 9 Books for a Better You, 9 Books for a Worse You (0 comment)

I’m not a huge believer in new year’s resolutions — they always feel like set ups for failure and disappointment instead of the well-meaning self-bettering they’re intended to be. However, I do believe in the fresh promise of a new year and taking the opportunity to deliberately (and gently) think about your routines and what you might be missing...

Keith Mosman: Powell's Picks Spotlight: Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham's 'Lunar New Year Love Story' (0 comment)
Kate Brody: What If the Real Monsters Were Inside Us All Along: Kate Brody’s Movie Playlist for ‘Rabbit Hole’ (0 comment)

Come and Get It

Kiley Reid

Reid’s second novel follows a cast of messy and charming characters whose lives intersect at the University of Arkansas. There are so many awkward and cringe-worthy moments that I live for in a book and it gets uncomfortable in different ways for everyone. I love the delicate yet biting nature of Reid’s work that reels the reader in to a world that's relatable and engrossing.
Recommended by Vicky K.

Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends & Lattes Book 2)

Travis Baldree

We all need more cozy fantasy in our lives and Travis Baldree’s Bookshops & Bonedust hits like a warm cup of cocoa on a stormy day. From fixing up and uplifting a struggling bookstore to fighting a necromancer, you’ll want to spend some time cuddled up with this low-stakes, high-comfort book. Also: Potroast! (you'll get it...)
Recommended by Vicky K.

Death Valley

Melissa Broder

Melissa Broder's novel about an author dealing with her ailing dad and husband while being lost in the desert searching for a magical cactus speaks to me. Grief is a weird desert that allows you to get lost and parched while you're trying to find magic you thought you lost.
Recommended by Vicky K.

Rouge

Mona Awad

You would never guess that Tom Cruise, skincare, jellyfish, cults, and roses would fit together, but here we are. When Belle’s mother dies mysteriously, she follows clues to figure out what happened, and it ultimately leads her down a dangerous path of the pursuit of beauty and youth.
Recommended by Vicky K.

Crook Manifesto

Colson Whitehead

Returning to the world of Harlem Shuffle, Ray Carney finds himself in a jam: his daughter wants to go to a Jackson 5 concert, but tickets are hard to come by. Sales aren’t the greatest at the furniture store and he’s left behind the stolen goods game. He has a choice to make, and it gets complicated, to say the least. Whitehead takes us to Harlem in the 70s in all its grittiness and upheavals through Carney’s world in this brilliant new... (read more)
Recommended by Vicky K.

Quietly Hostile Essays

Samantha Irby

When I read this in bed before turning in for the night, I had to stifle my laughter to not wake up my boyfriend. Every essay is like talking to that one friend who always has an outrageous story to tell you while making you do that weird no-sound laugh.
Recommended by Vicky K.