Life Meets Literature

Fell in love with Powell’s Books in Portland, OR 📖 Fun fact: the book I’m holding is Forget Me Not by Julie Soto and one of the settings in the book is my wedding venue ✨

Haul:
📚 2 Special Edition copies of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
📖 Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood
📖 Event Horizon by Balsam Karan
📖 This is the Canon: Decolonize Your Bookshelf in 50 Books by Joan Anim-Addo, Deirdre Osborne, and Kadija Sesay
📖 Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
🧷 Enamel pin
🧶 Hoodie

Happy Pub Day! 🎉 These 6 new books published today and are available now!⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

📖 New Skin by Sarah Wang (from Little, Brown and Company)
“A scalding, darkly humorous debut following an enmeshed mother-daughter duo, both best friends and enemies, and the plastic surgery addiction that warps their lives into a perilous spiral.”

📖 We Dance Upon Demons by Vaishnavi Patel (from Saga Press Books)
“...a galvanizing stand-alone contemporary fantasy following a burnt-out reproductive health care worker as she fights back against escalating attacks on her clinic and the malevolent forces in hot pursuit of her newly acquired power.”

📖 There’s Something Fishy About My Boyfriend by Gloria Duke (from Casablanca Books)
“GYM. TAN. MERMAN. Welcome to the Jersey Shore, where the men are hot, the sun is sizzling, and the boardwalk’s seen it all…until now.”

📖 Coyoteland by Vanessa Hua (from Flatiron Books)
“...set in an affluent Bay Area suburb where a Chinese American family moves in and sets off a series of scandals.”

📖 The Last True Vampire by Kate Baxter (from Bramble Romance)
“He is the last vampire king, and he has finally found his mate.”

📖 First and Forever by Lynn Painter (from Berkley Romance)
“...an utterly irresistible romantic comedy about a football star and his team’s die-hard fan who find themselves entangled in a PR stunt that only one of them knows is fake.”

Romance - Vampires - Mermaids - Pub Day - Berkeley

One word: RITA. 😭 My review (with spoilers) of the 7th episode of The Testaments on Hulu is officially live on the blog! 💜 Head over to the link below to read all my thoughts on episode 107 Commitment. But BE WARNED! I talk about EVERYTHING that happens so if you haven’t watched yet and don’t want to be spoiled, go watch the episode and then come back and read my review!

A massive thank you to my friends at Hulu and The Testaments for sending me early screeners for review!

🔗 Read my review: https://lifemeetsliterature.com/the-testaments-season-1-episode-107-review/

The Handmaid’s Tale - Hulu Partner - Hulu

Happy Pub Day! 🎉 These 6 new books published today and are available now!⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

📖 Honey by Imani Thompson (from Random House)
“A dark, provocative, adrenaline-rush of a novel about a graduate student who murders bad men and justifies it in the name of feminism, by a bold new voice in fiction.”

📖 Birth Vibes by Jen Hamilton (from Grand Central Publishing)
“...the ultimate companion for anyone preparing to give birth—or supporting someone who is. Warm, funny, and deeply grounded in real-life experience, this is the guide every parent deserves: allowing them to adapt to whatever birth brings with confidence and calm.”

📖 What’s Going Right: A Powerful New Method for Optimizing Your Mental Health by Paul Conti (from Grand Central Publishing)
“Based on the wildly popular four-part series on Andrew Huberman’s podcast, this affirming book from world-renowned and celebrity-endorsed psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Conti, offers a paradigm-shifting approach to optimizing mental health — offering readers a proven way towards a joyful life.”

📖 The Instigators: How Black Women Have Been Essential to American Democracy (And What We Can Learn from Them) by Atima Omara (from Harper Books)
“A top Democratic Party strategist and media contributor offers a bold and urgent reminder that young Black women hold the key to saving our democracy and building a truly multi-racial future that benefits all Americans.”

📖 But Won’t I Miss Me by Tiffany Tsao (from HarperVia Books)
“Set in an alternate reality where pregnancy endows women with exceptional powers, one new mother uncovers terrifying truths about herself and life in this philosophical and propulsive tale of a woman and mother in crisis.”

📖 The Fallen: The Lost Girls of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries and a Legacy of Silence by Louise Brangan (from Simon & Schuster)
“A haunting and brilliantly researched history which interrogates the culture of shame in Ireland, and tells the full story, for the first time, of the women confined within the walls of the Magdalene Laundries in the 20th century.”

Non-Fiction - Politics - History - Pub Day - Wellness

May TBR 🌸 Here are a few of the books I’m hoping to read this month!

📖 The Bridge Back to You by Riss M. Neilson (from Berkley Romance)
“Exes discover they’ve both inherited the restaurant they love in this sparkling, emotional new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of A Love Like the Sun.”

📖 Frida’s Cook by Florencia Etcheves (from Atria Books)
“This colorful, emotive historical debut whisks us to the home of Frida Kahlo, where food, art, and love weave together an unforgettable story of friendship and loyalty, with a bright Coyoacán as a vivid background.”

📖 The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman (out 9/8 from Scribner Books)
“The brand-new series from the bestselling author of Practical Magic, following two brilliant young women in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, as they become immersed in a mysterious secret group of witches at Radcliffe known as the Lilith Society.”

📖 Under Story by Chloe Benjamin (out 9/1 from Putnam Books)
“...an intimate yet epic love story—and a sweeping odyssey of scientific discovery. Under Story invites us to consider the promise of this life, what might lie beyond it, and how far we would go for more time with the people we love, cementing Chloe Benjamin’s place among our best, and most lasting, storytellers.”

📖 Anger Is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo (out 9/15 from Quill Tree Books)
“From National Book Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author and renowned poet Elizabeth Acevedo comes a white-knuckle journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing, no matter the cost.”

📖 Birth Vibes by Jen Hamilton (out 5/5 from Grand Central Publishing)
“...the ultimate companion for anyone preparing to give birth—or supporting someone who is. Warm, funny, and deeply grounded in real-life experience, this is the guide every parent deserves: allowing them adapt to whatever birth brings with confidence and calm.”

What are you excited to read this month?

Poetry - Romance - Non-Fiction - May