Hoi!
This is a video that's been long in the making and I knew that if I didn't do it now,
it was not going to happen and it was going to be outdated.
So as you might know,
like lots of other book reviewers,
I sometimes get sent early copies of books to talk about them before
they come out,
which publishers do to create some early hype,
get people excited.
Of course,
I only take ones that I think I'll be genuinely interested in and I have a few different criteria for myself,
or sometimes I have a really good relationship with the PR person at the
publishers and I know they know my taste and so they know what I like and sometimes it's a premise that I'm not
entirely sure I would like,
but then the comparison titles or when they do a 'it's like this book meets this movie'
really hits the right spot and I kind of take a bit more of a chance on it.
Anyway, around November or December
there were a bunch of proof copies being sent out. Some parts of the year
it's a lot quieter than other ones.
There were a bunch of things that I was really interested in.
There were a few that were for January and February which obviously it is now too late for, which doesn't
mean that I won't be reading them.
But basically this week I got my act together and I rummaged through my books,
found all the proof copies of books that weren't released yet.
Read their first chapters and based on that I picked 10 that I am really excited about.
I also want to do a little shout out to four books that have just come out, a quick honourable mention.
Most of the books that I'm showing you in this video will have been sent to me by the publisher for free.
But as usual,
it is up to me to decide whether I want to talk about them or not.
I just wanted to add that in as a disclaimer because obviously otherwise I wouldn't have had these early because they're not out yet.
Okay, let's quickly get into the honorable mentions. First for February.
There was The Gilded Ones.
This was supposed to come out in June of last year originally and then the pub date was moved forward.
I actually thought this was coming out in June of this year but I missed the pub date.
So this was out in February.
Oh the cover, they sent a postcard with it, looks like this.
So this is set in a fantasy world called Otera.
But the author is also incorporated their own
experiences when it came to the Sierra Leone civil war and then racism and
sexism that she experienced in the US.
I absolutely love when proof copies come with a letter from the author
and I think sometimes those make it to the final copies but I almost wish that those
were you know,
in all the final copies.
I've read the first chapter of this one and it starts in the lead up of an event where teenage
girls are tested for their purity.
It's a ritual that will determine the rest of their lives.
It also talks about different groups from the different I think they mentioned by
the different directions from the north and the west.
Kind of coming together and the different groups of people that live there.
The quote on the back is quite interesting.
Are we girls or are we demons?
I have a few March books.
This is The Inland Sea.
I read the first like 30 pages of this yesterday and this is kind of
more on the literary side.
But interestingly,
the main character is just out of university living in Australia.
I'm also keen to do a video featuring some books where the characters are at the end of
university, or early in their career.
I've read quite a few of those recently and I know there's always people kind of looking for something that
feels a bit, in between YA
And some of the books that kind of feature around like 40/50 year old couples.
This is about a young woman trying to find her purpose.
She starts working for an emergency call center.
Where they redirect people calling 999 or 911 but
this also is related to the Australian bushfires.
So I'm also reading this in the interest of books that talk about climate change.
So far: really solid,
interesting and quite pacey writing.
Then this one actually pre-ordered myself and picked up from my local bookshop.
It is The Manning Tree Witches and I'm not going to lie partly
my attention was drawn to this initially because of the cover and the word witch.
It's published by Granta and it's a debut novel
Set in England in 1643.
I'm going in big on witch books this year.
One that I don't have a copy of yet is Plain Bad Heroines by the
author of The Miseducation of Cameron Post.
It starts being set in 1902 with a group of
girls at I think it's a boarding school, who are obsessed with a young female author.
And they start their own Bad Girls Club.
And then it also goes to the modern day.
And I mean there must be some relation between the two. It sounds really fun and I
absolutely loved Cameron Post. Finally in books that have come out in March,
there is Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.
This proof copy is extremely cool.
I absolutely love Never Let Me Go.
This also has futuristic sci-fi themes because it's
about Klara who is an artificial friend and she is in a store waiting for a
human to come pick her up or buy her.
Very, very, very excited about this one.
I recently worked with Faber as well,
to promote the beautiful new editions that they've done of some of his previous
books that match this very well.
That was a long intro.
Now we're going to go to the books that are not out yet,
although some of them will be out very soon.
The question is,
will this video be up before the book comes out?
We'll see,
because it's April first. I'm filming this on March 21st,
so I've got high hopes. There's so many like bits and press releases in this [The High House]
This is another climate change related novel,
I think I got three similarly themed ones in my inbox in a row
This is about a young family living in what I think is a holiday home,
and the mother of the family is anticipating the changes
that are happening and is turning this home into like a self sustainable hub.
And it starts off with the main character living with her family in that hub,
seemingly in the sort of after times,
although I haven't found out too much about that yet.
And then it has flashbacks to the start of their family and her
younger sibling being born. So far,
really accessible, really pacey.
And I'm really curious about how much of this is going to be
internal in the house and how much context you're going to get about what happened
and what's going on outside of that,
which is always my question,
I think when I start reading a book that I know has this kind of setting
because I would like to know what's going on in the rest of the world.
But sometimes it is interesting to keep that a bit more vague.
I loved The Water Cure and with The Water Cure there is a lot of mystery and a lot of
things you don't know about and it's very much about what's happening inside the house and I think in
that book that worked really well.
So yeah, that's that one, We're going by publishing date.
So next it is April 20th and it is Witches Steeped in Gold,
which I don't have a proof copy of.
So I haven't read the first chapter yet,
but I loved the premise of it.
It is a Jamaican inspired fantasy debut about two
competing witches who have to form an alliance and it is being
compared To Killing Eve,
which sounds super fun and I have preordered a copy of that from my local bookshop,
Then still in April, April 22,
there is Cunning Women.
This is one that I had only heard about because I received an email from the publisher and
the pitch sounded perfect.
You're going to see a lot of common themes as you know,
is usual in my videos.
This is about witches. This is interestingly
also a debut,
a lot of debuts in this list.
The copy on the back says when it is no longer safe to be a witch they call themselves cunning.
I read the first about 30 pages of this one and it seems
very gritty so far set in Lancashire 1620.
It's about a family that's on the outskirts of town,
people don't really like them.
I think if I remember correctly,
part of the premise is that she falls in love with a local boy.
Immediately loved the writing of it,
got drawn into it very easily.
So we'll definitely be really more with this very quick interlude because I just finished filming this
video when I made myself lunch,
started listening to the Dear Hank and John podcast and realized that of course
I'd forgotten a book. May 18th,
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green.
So it is based on the Anthropocene Reviewed podcast which I absolutely love,
in which John Green reviews things that exist on this planet.
He reviews them out of five stars.
But they are always a jumping off point to share
a memory or an experience,
whether it's a personal one or a shared one.
He just revealed the cover as well,
It looks absolutely stunning.
So will be getting my hands on that in May.
Now, interestingly everything else is going to be June and July. 1st up June
1st is The Other Black Girl which has been doing the rounds
through publishing very successfully.
There's been a lot of proofs being sent out to people that work in publishing as well.
I do not have a proof copy,
but I have preordered this book as well.
This has been on so many most anticipated lists.
I feel like lots of you will probably have heard about it as well,
but it is about a young black girl who works in the publishing industry and about
her experience.
I think the proof copy had a certain spot UV layer on it.
So when you turned and held it against the light,
it said: leave publishing now.
So I'm definitely anticipating that that book will start a lot of
conversations,
I wasn't sure what kind of genre it fell in,
but it does say that it is a thriller.
I've definitely noticed that a lot of books by black authors are getting like a Get Out meets this and
this. So here they're saying,
Get Out meets the Devil Wears Prada.
And for the next one,
the pitch is Get Out,
meet Gossip Girl and get this reflection right,
so you can see it.
Maybe not,
the title is here,
but it will be in red in the final edition,
Ace of Spades, it's out on June 10th.
This is a YA novel. Loads and loads of hype around this book.
It's about a Black student who is in a predominantly white school and
there is an anonymous texter who is sharing people's secrets.
Really great author letter at the beginning of this as well,
"Watching Gossip Girl.
I realized how much a creative story like this,
but with people who looked like me as the stars."
The author actually has a podcast about writing and publishing as well.
And she interviewed me I think it was about a year ago.
So I will link that in description.
Okay, a bit more End of the World, sorry!
This is a stunning proof copy.
Coming out June 24.
It's called The Stranding. I keep calling it The Awakening in my head.
Very pretty. From the bones she built a new life.
This is about a woman who is visiting a beached
whale right as the world is ending.
And then she climbs into the whale to save herself and then comes out and
the whole world has changed so far.
What I've read,
it's her on the beach and she meets a man who is also there and they're kind of alluding to the fact that the world is ending.
Then it goes to a flashback where she's having an affair with someone
and that is all I know for now.
But that concept works beautifully for me.
At first I wasn't sure if the whale was a metaphor when I kind of was
reading the briefing.
But there is there is a real well let's move on to the next one.
The ones were meant to find also out on June 24th which is a YA
novel also set in the future. It is two young girls.
One of them is finding her sister one of them.
Um I think is a STEM superstar if I'm not mistaken.
They're saying it's a mix of We Were Liars meets Black Mirror with a
dash of Studio Ghibli. I'll put the cover here,
it looks absolutely stunning and it was just one of those that I think I saw a tweet about.
It looked up on GoodReads, marked it and said I'd like to know more about that one.
Next up,
I don't have a physical copy of this book,
but I do have a very early e-book advance,
which is one of the perks of being friends with the author because it is Reputation by Lex Croucher.
It is a Mean Girls meets Regency era.
Now, if you know Lex, you know that
they are hilarious, very witty
A very particular kind of humor that I absolutely love.
And that directly translates into this book as well.
So it's set during the Regency era.
The protagonist is called Georgiana.
She is having a very boring time staying with her aunt and uncle.
Then she's introduced to Frances at a party.
And this whole new world of debauchery and drinking and partying is
opened up to her and maybe when we're allowed to be in the same room again
because of the pandemic,
I will ask Lex to come to a video and talk about their book.
Reputation is out on July 8th.
Next July 22,
there is Afterlove, which has a great tagline,
"a lesbian love story you're dying to read"
it involves reapers and two characters who are separated by death.
I don't have a proof copy of this yet,
but I think there should be one on its way to me at some point.
This is one of the books that I heard about ages and ages and ages ago and it's been on my to read list
ever since. And then finally, sharing a book birthday with Afterlove,
July 22nd is She Who Became the Sun.
This 'this meets this' description is also great.
Mulan meets The Song of Achilles,
very interesting combination. It's a "stunning queer reimagining of the dawn of the Ming Dynasty."
First of all,
the saddest words in a proof copy you can ever see which is map TK
which means map to come.
There will be a beautiful map here,
but it's not here yet.
Really great historical note,
which I think is very helpful for this book in particular.
The first part starts in 1345 in china.
It starts off with the main character being very young.
They are in a famine and her older brother is
brought to a, don't know what the right word for it is, a seer and
he basically has to predict whether he will do great things and he says yes,
yes, your son will do great things.
And then she secretly goes back to him and says,
what can you see my future?
Will I do great things and he says,
you will do nothing.
This book is slightly on the longer side,
but I think fits right in with the kind of historical fiction that I love to read
except that most of the historical fiction that I read is very Europe based.
And that's all of them.
I will admit that I'm usually very bad at keeping track with
what's coming out.
I will hear things and pick up on things on Twitter and Instagram.
I usually make videos about book to movie adaptations that are coming out.
So you can start reading them, because also with these,
you can obviously pre-order the book,
but very often you won't have the chance to read these before.
But I thought it would be fun to try this out and see what you think and see if it's helpful for
you to know what's coming out.
I would really love to know out of all of these,
If you could read one,
which one would it be?
That's it for me,
this took a lot of organizing,
but it was very fun to do,
and it's only going up to July so who knows what's coming out.
And it's obviously been a very turbulent time where lots of publishing dates have been shuffled around, so
I wanted to kind of give a bit of extra love to some of these books coming out during the pandemic.
If you have an account on The Storygraph
I have made an account there and I'm tracking my reading there,
which is an indie owned alternative to GoodReads.
You can find me on their at Booksandquills.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you soon.
Doei!