If you’re looking for a week where you can start to catch up with your TBR because the new releases aren’t as plentiful, you’ve found one. That’s not to say there aren’t new books, but this isn’t going to be as busy as last week nor as busy as some upcoming weeks.
Romance lovers will enjoy this week’s new releases, as several titles have BIG FEELINGS FOR OTHERS at the center of the story. Nerds, too, will love the new hardcover release packed with Dungeons & Dragons fun.
Enough introduction. Let’s get to it.
New YA Hardcover Releases
Roll For Love by M. K. EnglandGaming nerds, this one is for you! Harper Reid’s life has been completely upended after the death of her grandfather. She’s moved across country to a rural farm–one where she spent summers growing up–and the Dungeons & Dragons campaign she was engaged in is, well, no longer one she’s part of. Harper didn’t anticipate running into Ollie Shifflet, her old bestie, once she moved. But she did, and she’s been invited to take part in a new D&D campaign with Ollie and her friends. There is immediate tension of the romantic sort building between Harper and Ollie’s characters in the campaign. It’s only there though, for sure. At least, that’s what Harper tells herself. It’s possible that Harper, who is trying to be out and proud in her new town, and Ollie, who knows she needs to keep her bisexuality quiet to protect herself, are going to have to acknowledge those game-based feelings are more than just imaginary. |
New series release in hardcover this week: Fearless by Lauren Roberts
New YA Paperback Releases
Note that you may need to toggle your view to see the paperback edition of some of these titles.
I Love You S’More by Auriane DesombreIvy just dealt with a really public breakup with her first girlfriend, and she’s looking forward to working as a camp counselor this summer to really get away from it all. It’s an opportunity to lean into the fun things like camp fires, sunshine, and her camp friends. What Ivy couldn’t anticipate is that by signing up to run the camp musical, she’d be working with Rynn to co-direct the show. Rynn is bossy and thinks she’s smarter than everyone because she’s done this camp counselor thing before. Ivy and Rynn also had a falling out when they were young, so that doesn’t help. You can guess where this one is going. It’s those hot summer nights and that roaring tension that starts to make clear to Ivy and Rynn that there might be some sparks between them. This is a paperback original novel. |
It Waits In The Forest by Sarah DassSelina DaSilva might be the only person on the Caribbean island of St. Virgil who does not believe in magic. She’s looking forward to leaving the small island to study Pharmacology, but those plans are out the window when an attack kills her father and severely hurts her mom. Selina is staying home to help care for her mom, but she’s far from enjoying the work of selling talismans and protective spells to tourists. So when a tourist is blamed for a series of murders, Selina can’t hide behind not believing in magic anymore. There’s something dark going on in the forests. Selina’s going to investigate with the help of—whoops—her ex-boyfriend, a local journalist. Together, they’ll find justice for the tourist and get answers to what happened to Selina’s mom and dad. |
Off With Their Heads by Zoe Hana MikutaThis book is pitched as a Korean-inspired, surrealist Alice in Wonderland. Caro Rabbit and Iccadora Alice Sickle were banished five years ago. The young witches were in love with one another. Four years ago, then, their relationship ended as they needed to seek their individual chances at freedom. Caro has since become a successful Saint-harvester for the royals. She pretends she doesn’t know what the Red Queen does, the evil she perpetrates. Icca, however, does not forget the betrayal she felt by Caro and is out for revenge. She’ll enact that revenge on the Red Queen and on Caro. But the Red Queen knows more than she’s ever let on and now a volatile magic may destroy Caro and Icca before either ever get the chance to reconnect (even if that reunion was not going to be for good). |
The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee by Ellen OhWhat would happen if you ended up inside the story you were writing? That’s precisely what happens when Mina Lee wakes up one Saturday morning anticipating it’d be a day where all she had to do was take the SAT. While inside the world she created, Mina comes face to face with the boy she’s been having big feelings for. But in order to save the world she’s in (and escape!), she might need to put a future with Jin on the line. This one’s for readers who love a little fantasy, a little romance, and a clever meta-narrative. |
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This week, we’re highlighting a post that celebrates the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby! Revisit F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic (and emblem of assigned reading) and get a crash course on the book’s history, including challenges encountered by its readers and adapters. Read on for an excerpt and become an All Access member to unlock the full post.
January 16, 2025, marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The New York Public Library celebrated with a party, following a special performance of the Broadway musical adaptation of the novel. Simon and Schuster recently released a new audiobook with an introduction by Jesmyn Ward.
The novel’s theme of reinventing oneself is timeless. The ideas of living a lie by reinventing yourself and wealth making people callous are equally resonant today. How did this novel become so influential, especially on other American novels, and a fixture on high school syllabi? Was it always a bestseller? What aspects of Gatsby hold up, and which ones have aged terribly?
Fitzgerald’s original title for The Great Gatsby was Trimalchio in West Egg. I think the publisher was right to change it. Trimalchio is a character from the ancient Roman work The Satyricon. Combined with the fictional West Egg neighborhood, this reference is cryptic. Gatsby is now an icon in his own right. He doesn’t need a classical allusion for us to notice the theme of excessive wealth.
In a 2014 NPR interview, Maureen Corrigan, the author of So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures, explained how Gatsby became popular. Initial reception was mixed, ranging from the headline “Fitzgerald’s Latest a Dud,” to Modernist poets like T. S. Eliot saying they loved it. When Fitzgerald died in 1940, Gatsby was unpopular (but not out of print). A few years later, it was republished for US service members in World War II, and 123,000 copies were given to members of the military through the Armed Services Editions.
After World War II, Gatsby was no longer an obscure book with mixed reviews. It was considered a classic and became a staple of countless high school syllabi. Constance Grady wrote that Gatsby was ideal for many 20th and early 21st-century English teachers’ emphasis on New Criticism. It’s a great choice for close readings of short passages and analyzing symbolism. However, historical context is also crucial and should never be downplayed, especially in terms of bias.
The Great Gatsby possibly condemns white supremacist theories but uses racist language elsewhere. Tom Buchanan reads white supremacist books and goes on racist rants. Daisy mocks him for this. It’s easy to read this as condemning Tom’s overall bigotry. However, Fitzgerald also expressed racist and antisemitic views in real life.
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