Salman Rushdie's New Memoir and New BIPOC Poetry Collections
Plus: a Japanese serial killer mystery/thriller 🔪
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Also, you can read an interview Salman Rushdie gave, in which he discusses the stabbing that inspired his latest memoir (mentioned below). The rest of the new releases are largely mystery/thrillers that I can’t wait to listen to on audio. I’ve also got a couple new poetry collections if you’re trying to get your poetry up for this month (and beyond, of course!).
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
Here, Salman Rushdie opens up about how he was stabbed while on stage in August 2022 — 30 years after having survived the fatwa placed on him. He looks at life immediately following the attack, and how things have changed since. I have to say, I admire the F-you energy this emanates.
You Know What You Did by K. T. Nguyen
This is a hot tamale of a release — all the mystery/thriller girlies are excited about it. It follows Annie “Anh Le” Shaw, who grew up poor but now seems to have it all — a great career, a nice house, and a loving husband and daughter. But, when her Vietnam War refugee mother dies, Annie’s world begins to unravel, and the OCD she’d thought she had rid herself of years ago is back in full force. Thing is, things might not just be imagined this time. When a well-known art patron vanishes, Annie is a suspect, and, doubting her own innocence, puts distance between herself and her loved ones. Well, that distance culminates in her waking up one day, naked and in a hotel room next to a dead body. The police obviously have questions, but it’s not clear if Annie can give them real answers.
The author is recovering from OCD herself, which I think is important to add because mental health issues aren’t always handled well, but Nguyen’s experiences add a fortifying layer of realness to the story.
One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole
In this contemporary gothic thriller, Kenetria Nash is trying to bring fresh life into her career as a historical preservationist after a mental health breakdown because her dissociative identity disorder threatened it years ago. She’s determined to excel in her new position as caretaker to a historic home, but realizes something strange once she arrives at the castle: she’s been there before. What’s more, a person from her past — who had a big hand in her breakdown — shows up, and when he ends up dead, Kenetria is the main suspect.
Weird Black Girls: Stories by Elwin Cotman
This collection of stories from Philip K. Dick Award finalist Cotman mixes the mundane with the fantastical while exploring what it means to live as a Black person. There’s a rural town with an authoritarian tree, friends hashing out their differences while stranger and stranger things keep happening in the Mexican restaurant they’re in, and a day of LARPing that turns existential. Cotman works humor and whimsy into each of these character-driven tales, even as the mood turns somber.
Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton
I feel like this cult Japanese bestseller is bound to be popular now that it’s been translated and is available stateside. In it, gourmet cook Manako Kajii is in a Tokyo detention center, having been convicted of killing several lonely businessmen, whom she is said to have tempted with her cooking. She’s refused to speak to the press, except for journalist Rika Machida, who writes to her asking about a beef stew recipe. Now, Machida is more of a ramen-every-night kinda gal, but thinks the visits that she starts having with Kaiji will get the woman to open up. She finds she’s the one who starts to be changed, instead.
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Recommendations: New BIPOC Poetry
The Blue Mimes: Poems Sara Daniele Rivera
This award-winning and bilingual collection looks at both personal and public grief — taking us from the 2016 presidential election through to the pandemic, and through the loss of loved ones.
Woke Up No Light by Leila Mottley
Mottley is the former Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland, California, and the author of 2022’s hit Nightcrawling. The poems in this collection wrestle with themes of “reparations, restitution, and desire,” taking a young Black girl’s hesitation into full, confident womanhood.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Bookish Goodies
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Until next time,
Erica
✨Below is an extended list for subscribers✨
8 More BIPOC Releases
A Kind of Madness by Uche Okonkwo (Nigerian Short Stories)
While We Were Burning by Sara Koffi (Mystery/Thriller)
The Band by Christine Ma-Kellams (Fiction, K-Pop)
Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger (YA, Fantasy, Indigenous Lore, Mystery)
Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao (YA, Aroace Contemporary Romance)
The Lady of Rapture by Sarah Raughley (YA, Fantasy)
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang (YA, Fantasy)
Calling of Light by Lori M. Lee (YA, Fantasy)