Letters And Literature
Welcome to my new weekly series Letters and Literature, where I document all of the fun mail that arrives at my house!
PUBLISHER MAIL!
I received 4 books from publishers in the mail this week.
Muñeca by Cynthia Gomez
A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, Latine, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process.
It is 1968 Oakland, and Natalia Fuentes has been hearing rumors about the beautiful Violeta Miramontes. The young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth has been left paralyzed by a mysterious illness. But Nati knows a thing or two about witchcraft, and she is certain that this is the work of dark magic.
Armed with a plan to break the spell and earn a handsome reward, Nati works her way into the house as Violeta’s caretaker, and immediately discovers her suspicions are true. But who cursed Violeta? And why?
As feelings between the two women bloom into romance, Nati grows more and more reckless, and is forced to face her own ghosts— ones she hoped would stay gone forever.
Mystery Guest by Maren Stoffels
From the author of Escape Room comes a thrilling whodunnit. Three people all confess to murdering the same person, they all have motives, but only one is the true killer.
Guess who?
Maria's life spirals into chaos after she provides testimony that puts her brother behind bars, a decision that has fractured her family and left Maria isolated from her friends. And not long after, Maria is found dead.
Three of her peers—Cody, Norah, and Pip—all confess to the murder. And they all have a motive...but only one is guilty.
When it comes to light that Maria was being tormented by a mysterious, masked figure known only as the "Mystery Guest," the search for answers becomes even more complicated.
Who is behind that mysterious mask? Who is the mystery guest? Maren Stoffels masterfully plays with perspectives and motives, as only she can—resulting in a murderously exciting page-turner.
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
Her search begins with an ending.…
The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave. They must work for him for another six years. Freedom is just another name for the life they have always lived. So Rachel runs.
Away from Providence, she begins a desperate search to find her children—the five who survived birth and were sold. Are any of them still alive? Rachel has to know. The grueling, dangerous journey takes her from Barbados then, by river, deep into the forest of British Guiana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She is driven on by the certainty that a mother cannot be truly free without knowing what has become of her children, even if the answer is more than she can bear. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. But above all this is the story of Rachel and the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children...and her freedom.
Canon by Paige Lewis
Two unlikely heroes embark on quests to win God’s favor in this outrageously entertaining, profoundly heartfelt novel that announces an ingenious new voice in the tradition of Chain-Gang All-Stars, No One Is Talking About This, and Martyr!
Yara can’t comprehend why God has chosen them to slay Dominic, the ruthless leader of the army of Bad Guys. Cast out by their family and reeling from a destructive relationship, Yara has never felt weaker—but with nothing left to lose, they strike a deal. Abandoning their solitary days of embroidery and obsessive cleaning, Yara reluctantly embarks on a perilous odyssey designed to prepare them for the daunting mission ahead.
Meanwhile, Adrena, a disillusioned prophet with a terrifying secret power, is determined to become the hero of this story. Desperately seeking the glory of God’s approval and the promise of heaven, where she hopes to reunite with her beloved mother, Adrena must first persuade Harpo, the leader of the Good Guys, that her plan is God’s will.
As their journeys unfold in a series of unforgettable adventures, Yara and Adrena are propelled toward each other and transformative revelations about life, death, and destiny in this intensely captivating, irreverent epic from a singularly brilliant new voice in fiction.
BINDERY BOOKS
I am a paid member of @Michael LaBorn's Bindery and our arcs came! (I've already read Buzzard. I BLURBED IT! I'M A BLURBER!)
Buzzard by Inez Ray
In 2086, corporations are monitoring fertility. Abortion is illegal. And the last woman alive who can perform the procedure is in hiding.
Seven years ago, midwife Mae Bastet was arrested for infanticide in the fractious Arizona Territory for providing health care to women in need. She was torn from her sons and sent to Buzzard—an experimental private prison deep in the Sonoran Desert, run by the paramilitary corporation Obsityan.
Desperate to reunite her family, Mae tries to keep her head down, swallow her prison-issued hormone supplements, and do her job as a glorified school nurse to Obsityan’s army of teenage drone pilots. But when mysterious, improbable pregnancies begin cropping up in her charges, she uncovers a web of secrets that has the power to destroy Obsityan. Mae must choose: stay complicit in Obsityan’s crimes or hold fast to her midwife principles and risk never seeing her sons again.
SPECIAL EDITIONS
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping
HOLY CRAP. I AM SO OBSESSED WITH THESE ILLUMICRATE COPIES. OMG.
(Check out all of the pics in our Community Discord!)
STICKERS
I am a member of the PIPSTICKS sticker PRO club. Each month, I get an incredible selection of stickers.
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(To see all the stickers inlcuded check out the stationary journal channel in our Discord!)
hope you enjoy this new series. There may be a bonus episode this week, because there are many books I received this month that I haven't been able to talk about and I want to get better at tracking what comes into my house.
(Should I also be doing unhaul posts?)
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