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Big Books of the Week

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury: Macmillan) leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Missing and Endangered by J. A. Jance (William Morrow: HarperCollins)

A Fatal Lie by Charles Todd (William Morrow: HarperCollins)

Relentless by Mark Greaney (Berkley: Penguin) 

These books and others publishing the week of Feb. 15, 2021 are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet. 

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

There are 2 LibraryReads selections arriving this week:

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (Tor: Macmillan)

"This book asks questions about identity, morality, and genetics, and resists giving easy answers. The man Evelyn and Martine claim as 'husband' is lying dead. Gailey invites us to consider a world where clone technology is almost perfect, and its creations are regarded as little more than cattle. What happens when a clone rejects her programming? And what happens when a woman can’t resist the influence of her upbringing? For fans of Black Mirror and Orphan Black.” —Krista Feick, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH

It is also an Indie Next choice:

"Just wow! I am so delighted that there are writers like Sarah Gailey producing science fiction of this caliber. Their latest novel, The Echo Wife, kept me riveted from beginning to end with elegant prose and a compelling, vulnerable protagonist who narrates the story in a wonderfully intimate first-person point of view. This is a refreshing, fast-paced thriller that gives center stage to questions of our humanity without asking them from a male-only perspective." —Christine Havens, BookPeople, Austin, TX

First Comes Like by Alisha Rai (Avon: HarperCollins)

"Dev, actor and grandson of a Bollywood star, is making the move to U.S. cinema. He meets YouTube influencer Jai at a party and can’t get the encounter out of his mind. Wonderfully developed characters populate this sweet own-voices novel about falling in like, and then love." —Heather Cover, Homewood Public Library, Homewood, AL

It is also an Indie Next choice:

"Alisha Rai has continued to deliver another relevant, swoon-worthy romance with First Comes Like. This book is perfect for readers who love a slow burn or fans of You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria. I enjoyed seeing the perspective of a contemporary Muslim woman in a way that wasn’t sensationalized or exoticized. Rai has written a book that is still sexy, even when the characters aren’t having sex. Jia, the heroine, is a ball of sunshine toward whom I instantly gravitated for her open, generous heart, big dreams, and strong work ethic. Reading about her journey to conquer self-doubt taught me a little bit about reframing my own flaws and accepting myself, too." —Stephanie Otani-Sunamoto, The Novel Neighbor, Webster Groves, MO

In the Media

In this week's issue of People, the "Picks" book of the week is The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's: Macmillan; LJ starred review). Also getting attention are The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing by Sonia Faleiro (Grove) and Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano (Minotaur: Macmillan). A "New Thrillers" section features The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse (Pamela Dorman: Penguin), Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan (Atria: S. & S.), and Girl A by Abigail Dean (Viking: Penguin). The "Buzz Book" is So to Speak: 11,000 Expressions That'll Knock Your Socks Off by Shirley Kobliner and Harold Kobliner (Tiller: S. & S.). The "Picks" section also highlights French Exit, based on the book by Patrick deWitt. 

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs (Flatiron: Macmillan): "This ambitious book reframes African American history, supplying the female Black experience as a much-needed perspective."

The NYT reviews Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs by Ina Park (Flatiron: Macmillan): "Park uses science, compassion, humor, diverse stories and examples of her own shame-free living (would you be a live model for students learning about gynecological exams?) to take the stigma out of these infections." Also, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates (Knopf: Random House): "It is a disappointment, then, to report that this book turns out to be a little underwhelming." 

USA Today reviews No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Riverhead: Penguin), which earns 3 stars: "It’s self-aware and unafraid to be ridiculous when the moment calls for it." 

The Atlantic also reviews No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Riverhead: Penguin): "Lockwood’s genius for irony is matched by the radiance of her reverence, when she lets it show."

NPR has brief reviews of three new romance novels.

Briefly Noted

USA Today picks five books for the week.

GMA has "7 books to read for Presidents Day, according to author Alexis Coe."

The Rumpus also has some presidential recommendations.

BookPage selects the best audiobooks of the month.

Bustle lists "Every Book You're Going To Want To Read In 2021."

NPR spotlights Black romance pioneers.

Angie Thomas recommends books for Black History Month at Amazon.

Madeleine Watts, The Inland Sea (Catapult: Penguin), recommends fellow Australian writers at Electric Lit.

Viking has picked up the new Ken Follett novel, Never, which is scheduled to release November 9. Publishers Weekly has details.

Comedian and writer Quinta Brunson's first book, She Memes Well (HMH), will be out June 15. E! News has more.

The L.A. Times has a preview of the forthcoming debut graphic novel Eighty Days by A.C. Esguerra (Archaia: S. & S.). It's due out Aug. 31.

Black tourmaline crystals, hibiscus tea, and more that Hanif Abdurraqib, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance (Random House; LJ starred review), can't live without is outlined at The Strategist.

"The more exposed you are to someone, often the more you like them," says Logan Ury, How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love (S. & S.) in an interview with the L.A. Times.

The Guardian interviews Isabel Allende, The Soul of a Woman (Ballantine: Random House).

Hermione Lee, Tom Stoppard: A Life (Knopf: Random House; LJ starred review), discusses the challenges of writing a biography of a living person with the NYT.

JEB, a.k.a. Joan E. Biren, discusses Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians (Anthology Editions) with Time.

Vulture profiles Patricia Lockwood, No One Is Talking About This (Riverhead: Penguin).

Lambda Literary's new "May We Present…" column features Zak Salih, Let’s Get Back to the Party (Algonquin: Workman).

Philippe Sands writes about the backstory and impact of The Ratline: The Exalted Life and Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive (Knopf: Random House) for The New Yorker.

Parade interviews Bette Midler, The Tale of the Mandarin Duck: A Modern Fable (Random House Books for Young Readers).

Can there be too many narrators for an audiobook? The Washington Post considers.

Literary critic J. Hillis Miller died at age 92. The NYT has an obituary.

Investigative journalist James Ridgeway has died. The NYT has an obituary.

Authors on Air

New Pictures is adapting The Haunting of Alma Fielding by Kate Summerscale as a TV series. Deadline reports.

There's a new trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League, which has associated titles. It premiers on HBO Max March 18.

CBS Sunday Morning interviews Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted (Random House; LJ starred review).

The NYT Book Review podcast features Simon Winchester, Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World (Harper) and Amelia Pang, Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America’s Cheap Goods (Algonquin: Workman).

Adam Jentleson Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy (Liveright: W. W. Norton; LJ starred review) appears on the The Ezra Klein Show.

Leah Johnson, You Should See Me In A Crown (Scholastic), discusses writing contemporary Black romance books with NPR's Code Switch.

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