25 Books That Should Be On Your Radar: August 2021

As always, we encourage you to do whatever you can to support your local bookstore, including purchasing audiobooks from our sponsor Libro.fm. Stay safe, get vaccinated, and keep reading!—Daniel Ford

Megan Abbott’s new book, The Turnout, might be her best work yet. She takes us into the insular world of a ballet studio run by a trio of characters that would be right at home in a Hitchcock or Kubrick film. Dana and Marie are sisters who take over the studio after their parents die in a car accident and Charlie, Dana’s wife, manages the back end and is as physically broken as he is emotionally broken. Throw in some angsty young’uns prepping for a performance of The Nutcracker, a loutish contractor who sees through everyone and has his own dark secrets, and Abbott’s stellar character development and dialogue, and you’ve got maybe the book of the year.

We were utterly charmed by Marie-Helene Bertino's 2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas back in 2014. It was one of the novels we talked about a lot the first year of the podcast. We can't wait to dive into her new novel Parakeet.

Megan Collins is one of those authors you only know from social media that you're convinced would be an excellent dinner (read: wine) party guest. Eagerly waiting for our mail carrier to drop off her latest The Family Plot.

We audibly gasped at the gorgeous cover of Kia Corthron's Moon and the Mars when it landed in Writer's Bone HQ. We are working on devouring this highly-praised, sensationally written novel. We’re also making plans to go back and read Corthron's debut The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter. Oh yeah, and she wrote for "The Wire." Talk about serious talent.

Julia Dahl is yet another author who we discovered through social media. Being the crime fiction junkies we are, we appreciate a delectable-bated hook: "The Missing Hours is a novel about obsession, privilege, and the explosive consequences of one violent act."

When Lyndsay Faye teased this book during her interview with us, she mentioned that even hatching the idea required "some big pants." Perhaps a "lush, magical, queer, and feminist take on Hamlet in modern-day New York City" would interest you?

We might still be pacing around the three spaces Jo Hamya's main character spends time in throughout the author's debut. Hamya gave us a lot to think about regarding inequality, privilege, and what it takes to simply survive in our current political and social environment.

Our 2015 interview with Paula Hawkins marked the first time we landed a chat with a newly minted best-selling author with a hot book out. Our chat was also briefly featured on Costco's website (who knew they had one with content). We're interviewing Hawkins for the podcast soon, so we're deep into her latest A Slow Fire Burning. If you needed even more incentive to pick up her work:

Yes, James Tate Hill's memoir Blind Man’s Bluff deals with some heavy stuff, but I couldn't help grinning the entire time I was reading it. Hill has been such a steadfast supporter of the show (he did a print interview back when we didn't know what the hell we were doing) and it was incredible reading about his journey to becoming the writer and man we know and love. It got a little dusty in Writer's Bone HQ a few times while we were reading Blind Man's Bluff. We'll make James pay for that later. We'll watch episode of "Golden Girls" or "Wings" in the meantime. Listen to his interview with Pop Literacy further down the page.

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers' The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is an Oprah Book Club Selection and was recently featured on Zibby Owens' podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. We don't need much more incentive to add a book to our #TBR pile.

Stephen King remains a staple of our literary diet and will be a constant presence on #bookradar no matter how many times he threatens us with a restraining order.

Yes, please. *faints*

We're all in on any essay collection that somehow features both Prince and "Frasier."

There is likely no author having more fun being an author than Maurice Carlos Ruffin. There are stories in The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You that are incredibly brief that pack the power of a weighty literary tome. What a blessing he is to the writer world.

Leila Slimani has been on our radar since NovelClass featured her novel The Perfect Nanny. The cover for her latest, In the Country of Others, is so beautiful, we've had it propped up near where we record our interviews. Words inside aren't bad either.

Being compared to Bryan Washington's Lot is pretty high praise. Pairing that with this cover and a lead story titled "Three Women of Chuck's Donuts" and it’s an offer we can’t refuse.

What we're always struck by with Joby Warrick's style is that he takes a super complicated geopolitical hot mess and crafts it into this digestible, thrilling narrative that the reader can’t put down. One of the other things we truly appreciate about his work is that he really gives us a human, ground-level view of these tense global standoffs. It really shows how decisions affect people trying to survive in places like Syria, the rest of the Middle East, and even the United States.

Joby Warrick mentioned Lawrence Wright's work during our recent chat and it reminded us that the author is now more or less writing in real time. The Plague Year might not be the easiest read, considering we're still going through a pandemic, but it's likely a necessary one as we try to learn from everything that's happened and move forward.

Author's Corner

We’re still a little buzzed from S.A. Cosby’s recent visit, which also featured Kelly J. Ford. In addition to some terrific insights about his latest novel Razorblade Tears, S.A. gave us a handful of recommendations you should put on your book radar ASAP. Collect ‘em all at your local indie bookstore.

Pop Literacy

NovelClass

In Episode 5.04, host Dave Pezza and guest host Daniel Ford (Black Coffee, Sid Sanford Lives!) channel their inner Nick Carraway and sit in the corner and make note of all the goings on in Michael Farris Smith's Nick and F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic The Great Gatsby.

Writer's Bone

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