BookTrib

Decades ago, there was a story in Time Magazine (Volume 86, Page 98, 1965) about a family who survived getting lost in the desert by drinking water from the car radiator and eating crayons. When that issue arrived at our house, my parents must have talked about the broken-down car, the 124-degree temperatures, and the way the kids buried themselves in the sand to escape the heat. Because in 1965 I was four years old, I couldn’t have read the story, but I remember the details.

Joseph M. Lenard has long explored the complexities of the human experience through stories that blend faith, loss, hope and resilience. In Roller Coasters: The Life Kind, he uses amusement park rides as vivid metaphors for life’s emotional twists and turns, examining grief, guilt, legacy and the power of moving forward.

Allegory by Jack Martin Haley "At 83, Jack Martin Haley has written a book that is both an act of remembrance and an act of faith that stories held long enough will eventually find their moment." Jack Martin Haley‘s Allegory is a work long in the making, rooted in stories heard more than sixty years ago in the villages of the Yukon Flats, and given the shape they always deserved. The result is a book about dignity, decline and the human hunger for redemption.

Day of Wrath by Otho Eskin With its richly layered mystery, intelligent plotting and one of the genre's most compelling detectives, "Day of Wrath" is the kind of thriller that reminds you why conspiracy fiction is so captivating in the first place. There are thrillers that ask you to race through the pages, adrenaline pumping through your veins, and there are thrillers that invite you to look twice at every clue, every conversation and every seemingly insignificant detail because it all matters.

Still reeling over the Margaret Qualley + Jack Antonoff split? Missing Erling Haaland’s presence on the World Cup pitch? Eager to find out how the music of Madonna blends with BTS bops? From soccer to stardom, this past week has given us plenty of pop culture plot twists. Here are the book recs that match the energy, from anti-AI nonfiction to quintessential breakup literary fiction. Happy reading! 📖 Ready to put down the phone and pick up your wallet or library card?

BookTrib is proud to present to our readers the Writers, Ink podcast, a show about the business of writing. J.K. Rowling was nearly homeless when she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Stephen King penned Carrie on a small desk wedged between a washer and dryer. James Patterson worked in advertising and famously wrote the Toys “R” Us theme song long before becoming an author. Whether you’re traditionally published or indie, writing a good book is only the first step in becoming a successful author.

Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon "An absolute gem of a book; you’ll want to read this before the summer ends on a beach blanket or a hammock, then take it home with you to finish under your covers before the night ends with a glass of wine or mug of hot tea!" Girl begins to hate job. Girl quits job. Girl goes to college for the experience and degree she never had. Girl matches wits with professor. Girl and professor… might… like… each other?

Icefall by Michael Newman and Jon Land "Anyone who wants their apocalyptic sci-fi grounded in human stakes will find a lot to love here." There’s a moment early in Icefall where an Alaska state trooper pulls open the door of a stranded Amazon delivery van and finds the driver catatonic, frozen in place with Sinatra still playing softly on the radio.

My Hip-Hop Wiz by Innton Tagger "Readers who want a fantasy retelling with swagger, style and soul will find a lot to enjoy here and a reminder that the most powerful magic is often the resilience we carry." Innton Tagger grabbed a beloved classic and completely remixed it in his own voice to create My Hip-Hop Wiz. This is a culturally rich reinvention of The Wizard of Oz that trades yellow brick roads for hustle, heart and hip-hop. From the opening pages, the book announces exactly what it is.

This week’s Atlantic Magazine’s cover story suggested we mourn reading like a death in the family. Rose Horowitch’s argument is compelling and the anecdotes and history are interesting, but the industry-level numbers tell us much less bleak story than a “postliterate collapse” into the dark ages. Let’s start with the market itself. If reading were truly dying, the book business should be shrinking. It isn’t.