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Pub Day Shout-Outs! July 28, 2020 featuring Burnham, Alterman, and Otis

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness)


Here are three books coming out today that I am excited to read!


book cover of Gabriella Burnham's It Is Wood, It Is Stone

Gabriella Burnham's It Is Wood, It Is Stone


Description from Publisher:

"Two women are drawn into a seductive web of privilege, displacement, sexuality, and other mysteries of the heart in this magnetic debut by a young Brazilian American author to watch.


"With sharp, gorgeous prose, It Is Wood, It Is Stone takes place over the course of a year in São Paulo, Brazil, in which two women’s lives intersect.


"Linda, an anxious and restless American, has moved with her husband, Dennis, for a year professorship. As Dennis submerges himself into his work, Linda finds herself unmoored and adrift, feeling increasingly disassociated from her own body. Linda’s unwavering and skilled maid, Marta, has more claim to Linda’s home than she can fathom. Marta, who is struggling to make sense of her country’s complicated history and its racial tensions, is exasperated by Linda’s instability. One day, Linda leaves home with a charismatic and beguiling artist, whom she joins on a fervent adventure that causes reverberations felt by everyone, and ultimately binds Marta and Linda in a profoundly human, and tender, way.


"An exquisite debut novel by young Brazilian American author Gabriella Burnham, It Is Wood, It Is Stone is about women whose romantic and subversive entanglements reflect on class and colorism, sexuality, and complex, divisive histories."


Why I want to read it: I love the story of relationships between women, and I love stories about women trying to find their purpose. The premise sounds so interesting--I cannot wait to read it!

 


book cover of Sara Faith Alterman's Let's Never Talk about This Again

Sara Faith Alterman's Let's Never Talk About This Again


Description from Publisher:

"Samantha Irby meets Bettyville in this darkly funny and poignant memoir about love, loss, Alzheimer’s, and reviving her father’s pornographic writing career from Mortified writer and producer Sara Faith Alterman.


"12-year-old Sara enjoyed an G-rated existence in suburban New England, filled with over-the-top birthday cakes, Revolutionary War reenactments, and nerdy word games invented by her prudish father, Ira. But Sara’s world changed for the icky, when she discovered that Ira had been shielding her from the truth; that he was a campy sex writer who’d sold millions of books in multiple languages, including the wildly popular ‘Games You Can Play with Your Pussy.’ Which was, to the naive Sara’s horror, not a book about cats. For decades the books remained an unspoken family secret, until Ira developed early onset Alzheimer’s disease…and announced he’d be reviving his writing career. With Sara’s help.


"In this cringeworthy, hilarious, and moving memoir, Sara shares the profound experience of discovering new facets of her father; once as a child, and again as an adult. Let’s Never Talk About This Again is a must-read confessional from a woman who spent years trying to find humor in the perverse and optimism in the darkness, and succeeded."


Why I want to read it:

You had me at Samantha Irby. I love Samantha Irby's work, so any comparison to her makes me automatically want to read the compared work. Also, I love memoir, and this sounds both heartbreaking and really hilarious--which are some emotions I can relate to at this point in time.

 


book cover of Cindy L. Otis's True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News

Description from Publisher:

"A former CIA analyst unveils the true history of fake news and gives readers tips on how to avoid falling victim to it in this highly designed informative YA nonfiction title.


''Fake news' is a term you’ve probably heard a lot in the last few years, but it’s not a new phenomenon. From the ancient Egyptians to the French Revolution to Jack the Ripper and the founding fathers, fake news has been around as long as human civilization. But that doesn’t mean that we should just give up on the idea of finding the truth.


"In True or False, former CIA analyst Cindy Otis will take readers through the history and impact of misinformation over the centuries, sharing stories from the past and insights that readers today can gain from them. Then, she shares lessons learned in over a decade working for the CIA, including actionable tips on how to spot fake news, how to make sense of the information we receive each day, and, perhaps most importantly, how to understand and see past our own information biases, so that we can think critically about important issues and put events happening around us into context.


"True or False includes a wealth of photo illustrations, informative inserts, and sidebars containing interesting facts and trivia sure to engage readers in critical thinking and analysis."


Why I want to read it:

This is admittedly a pick coming from my teacher heart. This book is written for YA readers, and I think it is a topic that is so important for educators to cover with their students. I love that a book like this is releasing ahead of the November election, so that students and young people can educate themselves on spotting reliable and unreliable sources and fake news.

 

(A note to our readers: click on the hashtags above to see our other blog posts with the same hashtag.)


Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.


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