Today in Bookish and Literary History, October 29

 1998 Another World by Pat Barker (UK) (Check my book chapter on Another World)

In a touching novel of memory and loss, Nick tries to keep the peace in his disintegrating family while comforting his grandfather, a proud, intelligent man who lies dying on the other side of town.

2019 Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (My Review) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Family Fang, a moving and uproarious novel about a woman who finds meaning in her life when she begins caring for two children with a remarkable ability.

2020 The Magpie Society: One for Sorrow by Amy McCulloch and Zoe Sugg

A STUDENT FOUND DEAD ON THE BEACH.

A WEB OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.

SOMEONE POISED TO STRIKE AGAIN.

2024 The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

The 19th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series.

2024 The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins (UK)

A masterful novel that is as page-turning as it is unsettling, The Blue Hour recalls the sophisticated suspense of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith and cements Hawkins’s place among the very best of our most nuanced and stylish storytellers.

2025 Birdlane Island by V.C. Andrews

Off the coast of Maine, on an island shaped like a seagull in flight, shrouded by mists off the bay, lives a novelist Jason Lorraine and his teenage daughter Lisa. They live a simple life, largely cut off from the mainland, and Lisa’s weak health poses a frequent concern.

2025 Tom's Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski

From the bestselling author of House of Leaves comes a magisterial novel about two friends determined to rescue a pair of horses set for slaughter.

2025 The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.

2025 Willow Rose by M. Kevin Hayden

For lovers of Stephen Graham Jones, Jeff VanderMeer, and Nick Cutter, Willow Rose is a compulsively readable, literary ode to the terror of the unknown that comes for all of us in the depths of night.

2025 The Devil Is a Southpaw by Brandon Hobson

A novel within a novel, we read here Milton’s dark, sometimes comic, and possibly unreliable account of the story of their childhood even as, years later, he remains jealous of Matthew’s extraordinary abilities and unlikely success. Milton reveals secrets about their friendship, their families, and their nightmarish, surreal, experience of imprisonment. In revisiting the past, he explores the echoing traumas of incarceration and pride.

2025 Julia Song Is Undateable by Susan Lee

CEO seeks dating coach

2025 The Bone Thief by Vanessa Lillie

When a Native teenager vanishes from her small town—a place with dark ties to an elite historical society—archaeologist Syd Walker is called to investigate

2025 Love Is a Four-Legged Word by Melinda Metz

In a deliciously warm and fuzzy new romance from Melinda Metz - best known for her signature animals who play Cupid - one scruffy former street dog will show two people in Sedona, AZ just how far kindness and love can go.

2025 The Library of Lost Girls by Kristen Pipps

When her sister returns from finishing school a total stranger, a teen seeks out the cause and discovers that the cost of becoming a perfect lady is much higher—and more sinister—than ever expected. A lush, gothic tale that will haunt readers long after they turn the last page.

2025 A Stranger Comes to Town by Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of Disturbances in the Field and Leaving Brooklyn, returns with a psychological novel about memory, identity, and the ways we create ourselves.

2025 Sonora by Jenni L Walsh

Inspired by a true story of one of the first female horse divers, Sonora explores a world of daring feats and extraordinary adventures set in the heyday of the American carnival scene.