Put these 10 books by local authors on your must-read list – Orange County Register
Get ready book lovers, 2023 is getting lit. Established and first-time Southern California authors will be stocking bookstore shelves with everything from neo-noir detective thrillers and pill-popping mysteries to queer sci-fi storybooks. 2023 is the year for filling pockets with magical realism family sagas and extravagant royal tragedies and more. Make this the year to devour the delicious, devastating and moving stories from our local writers. These are some of them:
“The Hour Between the Dog and the Wolf” by Tara Ison
Release Date: February 21, 2023 (IG)
Born and raised in the Valley, author Tara Ison’s first novel was a finalist for the LA Times Book Awards. Another made Oprah Magazine’s “Best Books of Summer List.” This winter we can’t wait to get our hands on her latest work: Inspired by the early life of Ison’s stepmother, ‘At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf’ is the story of a 12-year-old Parisian Jewish girl during the Vichy War of the World War II, France. When Danielle Marton’s father is killed in the early days of the German occupation, her mother sends her away to hide out in a small farming village. Danielle, renamed Marie-Jeanne Chantier, struggles to reconcile the reality of her family and the fate of her country with the lies she must tell to protect herself. At first she is embittered at being separated from her mother and horrified at milking the cows and posing as a devout Catholic. But as the years go by and the cast worsens, Danielle finds it easier to distance herself from her former life. By the time she is 15 and talked about in the now divided city, Danielle has not only lost memories of the family she had to leave behind, but of herself and has transformed into a staunch Catholic and anti-Semite. A disturbingly contemporary story.
Ison will be reading from “At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf” on February 24 at 7 p.m. at Vroman’s in Pasadena.
“Empty Theatre: A Novel: or, the Lives of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Sisi of Austria (Queen of Hungary), cousins, in their quest for connection and beauty…” by Jac JemcRelease Date: February 21, 2023 (MCD/FSG)If you couldn’t put down Jac Jemc’s acclaimed “My Only Wife” or “False Bingo,” you need to keep an eye out for “Empty Theater,” which hits shelves this February. If you haven’t already guessed it from the title, Jemc brings us a flamboyant social satire that reinterprets the misadventures of legendary royal cousins King Ludwig and Empress Sisi, who shared a passion for vanity and defiance. As a tragi-comic masterpiece, “Empty Theatre” immerses the reader in the world of Ludwig and Sisi – where the aesthetics of extravagance belies the isolation of its inhabitants. Readers follow two rare parallel lives and the complex, tenuous bond that bound them, told with empathy, humor and originality. If you’ve been obsessed with Hulu’s The Great, you might want to pre-order Jac Jemc’s Empty Theater.
“Burst” by Mary Otis
Release Date: April 4 (Zibby Books) Although originally from Boston, award-winning author Mary Otis has been a literary citizen of Los Angeles for some time. This spring, Otis, best known for her short stories, is publishing her debut novel, Burst, which explores the complex and nuanced relationships between mothers and daughters. Viva grew up with her mother Charlotte’s impulsive, eccentric and addictive personality. She had no choice – it had always been Charlotte and Viva against the world. After discovering an innate talent for dancing, Viva embraces her passion for the arts and pursues her dreams with the same intensity her mother chases alcohol. Over the years, Viva’s talent becomes her golden ticket and she moves away to pursue her destiny, but Charlotte struggles to reconcile her own past as a failed artist and the effects of her addiction. When tragedy strikes, Viva begins to understand how a daughter can become and become her mother again.
The Do Over by Suzanne ParkRelease Date: April 4th (Avon) Korean-American writer Suzanne Park was a stand-up comedian before becoming a novelist, appearing on the “Best of” lists of NPR, Marie Claire, The Today Show, and others. Her latest rom-com, The Do-Over, hits shelves in April. The protagonist Lily Lee is a bestselling author of the How to Be a Supernova At Work series and her editor wants a new book statistic – How to Land the Perfect Job. But when Lily lands a job at a top company, the employer finds she’s a few college credits short of graduating. This forces Lily to relive her senior year of college a decade later, complete with frat parties, dinners with “Dining Dollars,” and a class where her old college beau is the TA. This is a story about second chances and unexpected outcomes in life and love.
“In Search of Savanna: The Murder of a Young Native American Woman and the Violence of the Crowd,” by Mona Gable
Release date: April 25 (Simon & Schuster)In April, look out for Mona Gable’s Searching for Savanna: The Murder of a Young Native American Woman and the Violence Against the Many. A compelling and insightful investigation into the disappearance of a 22-year-old pregnant woman, Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, this book delves deep into the shocking reality of sexual and physical violence against Native women and girls in America and the consequences of government inaction. Through in-depth interviews, personal accounts, and litigation analysis, Searching for Savanna also illuminates the plight that Native American advocates have faced for decades.
“The Last Songbird” by Daniel Weizmann
Release Date: May 23 (Melville House)
Daniel Weizmann is an old school LA punk who once called himself “Shredder” and wrote for Flipside, California Hardcore and LA Weekly in the ’80s. He writes books these days, and his dark neo-noir detective thriller The Last Songbird is coming to your local bookstore this May. Failed songwriter and Lyft rider Adam “Addy” Zant drives through Los Angeles at night, plagued by thoughts of his ex and lyrics he can’t stop writing in his head. The best part of his day is rolling around with his favorite rider – aging folk legend Annie Linden. When Annie is found murdered, Addy is forced to take to the streets of LA and solve the case himself, but there’s a problem: the police think Addy is a suspect.
“An American Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Made,” by Santi Elijah Holley
Release Date: May 23 (Mariner Books) In 2022, Santi Elijah Holley won a National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award presented by the Los Angeles Press Club for his story Tupac in the Afterlife. In 2023 he will bring us his second book, An American Family: The Shakur and the Nation They Created. An insightful tale of the struggle for black liberation in America witnessed and shaped by the Shakur family, home of the late rapper Tupac, and Assata Shakur, the popular author and thinker who lived in exile in Cuba for three decades. For over 50 years, the Shakurs have inspired generations of activists, scientists and music fans. They have been romanticized and mythologized and hailed as heroes, but also condemned, imprisoned, exiled and killed. But the history of the Shakur family has never been unearthed like this. “An American Family” is not just family genealogy; It is the story of black Americans’ long struggle for racial justice.
Uranians: Stories by Theodore McCombs
Release Date: May 30 (Astra House) Theodore McCombs is something of a big deal in the science fiction scene. His stories have appeared in Guernica The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology. The five speculative stories in McComb’s collection span multiple possible worlds, each exploring the critical role of queerness from surprising angles. In Toward a Theory of Alternative Lifestyles, an abandoned gay man lines up at a Berlin rave, promising visions of parallel lives throughout the multiverse. In “Six Hangings in the Land of Unkillable Women,” at the turn of the 20th century, a police officer’s wife has a hunch that if you want to make an execution right, you might have to do it yourself. In “Uranians,” an expedition of queer artists and scientists and a transpriest board a ship on an interplanetary journey that will require them to reconcile their relationship with Earth while preserving their ship’s biome – and each other alive to obtain.
The Night Pharmacy: A Novel by Ruth Madievsky
Release Date: July 11 (Penguin) Ruth Madievsky is originally from Moldova and now lives in Los Angeles, where she writes poetry and writes the Catapult column, Eldest Immigrant Daughter. Her debut novel, All-Night Pharmacy, follows an unnamed narrator to a bar on the night of her high school graduation. She and her rebellious sister Debbie share a bag of suggestive pills, and the evening turns into a hazy and sensual dumpster fire when Debbie disappears without a trace. All-Night Pharmacy follows the narrator as she works as a clerk in the ER so she can pocket pills to sell on the side, and becomes entangled with a psychic Jewish refugee. Throughout the story, she wrestles with the idea of who a person should be, dabbles in sobriety and sexual empowerment, and ultimately must choose between searching for her estranged sister or allowing her to remain a relic of the past. Keep an eye out for this glowing neon gem set to grace bookstore shelves in July.
“Behold the Monster”, by Jillian Lauren (Foreword by Michael Connelly)
Release date: July 18 (Sourcebooks)
Jillian Lauren is the bestselling author of the memoir Some Girls, who was born in New Jersey but moved to New York City, then commuted back and forth from Brunei, where she ended up working as a call girl for the Prince of Brunei. She eventually settled settled in Los Angeles, where she shares a home with her two sons and her husband, Scott Shriner (Weezer’s bassist).
Furious.
If this all sounds wild, buckle up for their July release, Behold the Monster. Lauren takes readers on a personal and haunting account of her time spent with Samuel Little. What began with writing a letter to a convicted murderer led to hundreds of hours of interviews in which Little 93 confessed to murders, often drawing portraits of his victims. Lauren, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the LAPD, and countless law enforcement officials across America worked tirelessly to connect Little’s confessions and portraits to cold cases and bring justice to the victims and close their families.
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/01/31/put-these-10-books-from-local-authors-on-your-must-read-list/ Put these 10 books by local authors on your must-read list – Orange County Register
