It feels too long since our last Get Rec’d! We have a couple non-fiction titles, some Gothic horror, and an adorable middle grade novel.
Tell us about any great book recommendations you’ve received lately, or share one of your own in the comments!
The Bog Wife
I wanted to mention this one because Elyse was desperately looking for someone to discuss this book with on our Slack. It definitely is a twisty Gothic where you aren’t sure what is or isn’t real.
In this atmospheric Appalachian gothic, the Haddesley siblings of West Virginia must unearth long-buried secrets to carve out a future when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured
Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.
Middle child Wenna, summoned back to the dilapidated family manor just as her marriage is collapsing, believes the Haddesleys must abandon their patrimony. Her siblings are not so easily persuaded. Eldest daughter Eda, de facto head of the household, seeks to salvage the compact by desecrating it. Younger son Percy retreats into the wilderness in a dangerous bid to summon his own bog-wife. And as youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.
Brimming with aching loss and the universal struggle between honoring family commitments and the drive to strike out on one’s own, The Bog Wife is a haunting invocation of the arcane power of the habits and habitats that bound us.
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Bye Forever, I Guess
Okay, first off, let’s look at this adorable cover! This is a middle grade novel full of nerd and crafting culture. I can picture this making a great readalong for the Bitchery and whatever little ones are in your circle!!
Can a guarded gamer girl lower her shield for a new friend… or more-than-friend?
“EARNEST AND LAUGH-OUT-LOUD… PITCH PERFECT.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Thirteen-year-old Ingrid’s been living a double life. At school, she’s her popular friend Rachel’s charity case. Online, things are she crushes it in her favorite MMORPG, geeks out in her favorite fantasy fandom, and runs a popular social media account. If only real life were that easy.
But when Ingrid finally stands up to Rachel, it suddenly feels like she has no life at all.
Until she gets a super-sweet wrong-number text from a mystery boy at her school. Spending time together gaming as “Stitches” and “Traveler” makes her feel like she’s really connecting with someone. But when she begins to suspect that Traveler may be a popular classmate who is WAY above her in the cool-kid food chain—and whose original text was actually intended for Rachel—she faces a difficult choice. Can they be friends IRL? She wants to open up, but getting close to people has hurt her before. Is making real friends only fantasy after all?
Bye Forever, I Guess is the fresh, funny, and deeply sweet middle-grade debut of New York Times bestselling author Jodi Meadows (MY LADY JANE). Speaking to the messiness of middle-school friendships (and first loves), this is a warm, witty, enormously entertaining book—and a love letter to geek culture, gaming, and the healing power of fantasy.
“HILARIOUS… Charming, funny, and endearing.”—Kirkus Reviews
“The most DELIGHTFUL middle-grade romcom I’ve ever read!”—Ellen Oh, award-winning author of Finding Junie Kim
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year • A Bookshop.org Best Children’s Book of the Year • An American Booksellers Association Indie Next Selection
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I Never Thought of It That Way
Jill Q. recommended this one in the comments of our post following the U.S. election. Definitely want to put in on some more people’s radar and feel free to see what Jill said about the book.
“I can see this book helping estranged parties who are equally invested in bridging a gap—it could be assigned reading for fractured families aspiring to a harmonious Thanksgiving dinner.” —New York Times
“Like all skills, these techniques take practice. But anyone who sincerely wants to bridge the gaps in understanding will appreciate this book. Guzmán is emphatic about making an effort to work on difficult conversations.” —Manhattan Book Review
We think we have the answers, but we need to be asking a lot more questions. Journalist Mónica Guzmán is the loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted—twice—for Donald Trump. When the country could no longer see straight across the political divide, Mónica set out to find what was blinding us and discovered the most eye-opening tool we’re not using: our own built-in curiosity.
Partisanship is up, trust is down, and our social media feeds make us sure we’re right and everyone else is ignorant (or worse). But avoiding one another is hurting our relationships and our society. In this timely, personal guide, Mónica, the chief storyteller for the national cross-partisan depolarization organization Braver Angels, takes you to the real front lines of a crisis that threatens to grind America to a halt—broken conversations among confounded people.
She shows you how to overcome the fear and certainty that surround us to finally do what only seems impossible: understand and even learn from people in your life whose whole worldview is different from or even opposed to yours.
In these pages, you’ll learn:
* How to ask what you really want to know (even if you’re afraid to)
* How to grow smarter from even the most tense interactions, online or off
* How to cross boundaries and find common ground—with anyone
Whether you’re left, right, center, or not a fan of labels: If you’re ready to fight back against the confusion, heartbreak, and madness of our dangerously divided times—in your own life, at least—Mónica’s got the tools and fresh, surprising insights to prove that seeing where people are coming from isn’t just possible. It’s easier than you think.
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It’s All a Game
This goes onto the list of “good gift books for the right person,” especially if that person is a board game fiend. Really fascinating bits of history here!
“[A] timely book . . . a wonderfully entertaining trip around the board, through 4,000 years of game history.” —The Wall Street Journal
Board games have been with us even longer than the written word. But what is it about this pastime that continues to captivate us well into the age of smartphones and instant gratification?
In It’s All a Game, Tristan Donovan, British journalist and author of Replay: The History of Video Games, opens the box on the incredible and often surprising history and psychology of board games. He traces the evolution of the game across cultures, time periods, and continents, from the paranoid Chicago toy genius behind classics like Operation and Mouse Trap, to the role of Monopoly in helping prisoners of war escape the Nazis, and even the scientific use of board games today to teach artificial intelligence how to reason and how to win. With these compelling stories and characters, Donovan ultimately reveals why board games—from chess to Monopoly to Risk and more—have captured hearts and minds all over the world for generations.
“Splendid . . . A quick and breezy read, it doesn’t just tell the fascinating stories of the (often struggling) individuals who created our favorite games. It also manages to convey the entire sweep of board game history, from the earliest forms of checkers to modern-day surprise hits like Settlers of Catan.” —Mashable
“Artfully weaves together culture, business, and ways games impact society.” —Booklist
“A fascinating and insightful discussion not only of games past, but the socioeconomic and historical factors that contributed to their popularity.” —Chicago Review of Books
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