Hello and welcome back to Get Rec’d! This is where I impart some book recs, usually pulling from recommendations I’ve given or received.
We have a community recommendation this time, and if there are ever books you want to shout about or think would be of interest to the site, feel free to send an email. I also have some upcoming nonfiction, a horror anthology, and a sci-fi novella.
Have you received any great recommendations lately? Tell me about them in the comments!
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The Black Girl Survives in This One
Horror-writing great Tananarive Due writes the introduction, which automatically put this one on my radar. I also love anthologies for tired brain reading. This one has a wonderful list of writers, many of whom I’ve enjoyed previously.
A YA anthology of horror stories centering Black girls who battle monsters, both human and supernatural, and who survive to the end
Be warned, dear reader: The Black girls survive in this one.
Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L.L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maika & Maritza Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado. The foreword is by Tananarive Due.
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In Memoriam
This recommendation was sent in by Arielle, who says:
I’m here to return the favor of this blog recommending me books that scrambled my brain. This book will make you hurt so much, but you’ll be happy about it. It’s simply one of the best romances I’ve read in ages, which is odd because it’s not being marketed as a romance novel. And it should be.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn is one of the best written and researched historical romances I’ve had the pleasure of reading. This is a book for fans of Atonement, Brideshead Revisited, Downton Abbey, KJ Charles, and generally queer historical romances that come for your sanity and well being. It’s set in WWI between two privileged teenagers, both in love (much catnip for those who love angst and mutual pining) before facing the horrors of WWI, together and apart. The world is beautifully, sometimes achingly researched, and the romantic scenes help the reader understand the miscommunications between these two as they grow up, try to survive in the horrors of war, and fight for their love amid shellshock. Trigger warnings for era-accurate homophobia, references to sexual assault in the public school system, anti semitism, and depictions of ptsd and war.
Admittedly, I’m wary of anything that combines the words romance and Atonement as that is not a romance novel. I tried looking at Goodreads reviews at whether there’s any sort of HEA, but couldn’t find anything. If you’ve read this, please comment below as historical fiction with romantic elements and a historical romance are two very different things when it comes to reader expectations.
GMA BUZZ PICK • INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER AND AWARD WINNER • A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during World War I • “Will live in your mind long after you’ve closed the final pages.” —Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait
A Best Book of the Year: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, NPR
“In Memoriam is the story of a great tragedy, but it is also a moving portrait of young love, and there is often a lightness to the book.”—The New York Times
It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting.
Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle–an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood–without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt’s family asks him to enlist to forestall the anti-German sentiment they face, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt’s horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will be next.
An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!In Memoriam by Alice Winn
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In the Watchful City
Tor is great at releasing some topnotch novellas. This one reminded me of a mix of Neon Yang’s Tensorate series and Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian anthology.
In the Watchful City explores borders, power, diaspora, and transformation in an Asian-inspired mosaic novella that melds the futurism of Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station with the magical wonder of Catherynne M. Valente’s Palimpsest.
The city of Ora uses a complex living network called the Gleaming to surveil its inhabitants and maintain harmony. Anima is one of the cloistered extrasensory humans tasked with watching over Ora’s citizens. Although ær world is restricted to what æ can see and experience through the Gleaming, Anima takes pride and comfort in keeping Ora safe from all harm.
All that changes when a mysterious visitor enters the city carrying a cabinet of curiosities from around the world, with a story attached to each item. As Anima’s world expands beyond the borders of Ora to places—and possibilities—æ never before imagined to exist, æ finds ærself asking a question that throws into doubt ær entire purpose: What good is a city if it can’t protect its people?
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu
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It’s Not Hysteria
This one is out soon! This one takes into account more intersectionality in receiving healthcare, especially when it comes to reproductive health.
An inclusive and essential new resource for reproductive health—including period problems, pelvic pain, menopause, fertility, sexual health, vaginal and urinary conditions, and overall wellbeing—from leading expert and fierce advocate Dr. Karen Tang
Did you know that up to 90% of women experience menstrual abnormalities or pelvic issues in their lifetime? Yet these conditions are overwhelmingly misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or dismissed. The root causes for these issues, such as PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts, PMDD, or pelvic floor dysfunction, don’t receive the stream of funding for research and new treatments that other conditions do, despite affecting up to half the population.
Dr. Karen Tang is on a mission to transform how we engage with our bodies and our healthcare. It’s Not Hysteria is a comprehensive guide to common conditions and potential treatment options, with practical tools such as symptom prompts and sample questions for your provider, to equip readers to take control of their gynecologic health.
Reproductive healthcare, from abortion to gender-affirming care, is under siege. The onus continues to fall on patients to find and advocate for the care they need. In the face of uncertainty and misinformation, It’s Not Hysteria is destined to become a new classic that educates and empowers women and those assigned female at birth.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!It’s Not Hysteria by Karen Tang
I definitely wouldn’t say that In Memoriam is a romance novel. Historical fiction with elements of romance, I guess. It most reminded me of Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy.
I have In Memoriam on my shelf but I have not read it yet. I think it just moved up my list 🙂
My library has Not Hysteria on order, so I’ve added myself to the waiting list. I’ve been thinking back lately to the completely inadequate “health” lectures for the girls in my middle school.
Reading about “In Memoriam” kind of reminded me of “The Charioteer” by Mary Renault, for some reason. Maybe because it’s set during the same time period? But it’s different because, iirc, the men in “The Charioteer” are recovering after being wounded in the war and trying to get back to normal life. I will have to investigate this. Placing the hold at the library.
I have It’s not Hysteria on hold at my library. Can I also suggest Jen Gunter’s two books, the Menopause Manifesto and the Vagina Bible. Both are funny and informative. They answer questions we all have but might be too embarrassed to ask.
I read the sample for “In Memoriam” and went out on my lunch break to buy a copy because I couldn’t wait for the library hold to arrive.
In Memoriam isn’t really a romance, but it does end (spoiler???????) basically well for the main couple, with some unresolved issues.
In Memoriam is really good, but please do heed the heads-up that it “will make you hurt so much”. It really drives home that so many young, young men were sent to die in horrendous circumstances, and the ones that came home were wounded in body and soul in ways no one was ready to deal with. I had to stop twice and go outside, pet a cat, sip some tea.
I think I’m the only one who didn’t care for IN MEMORIAM and skimmed to the end. I loved Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy, especially the first book, but I just couldn’t connect with the boys in Winn’s novel. The In Memoriam pieces from the school newsletter were truly touching and tragic, but the stories of the boys at school just made me impatient – so many teenage hormones, so much focus on sex, I was a bit bored with it. I recently read ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and found it quietly devastating in a way that this book did not. I do recognize that I’m in the minority, however.
Really liked In Memoriam (can’t say enjoyed, it’s far too harrowing), but it’s a historical novel about World War I with romantic elements, not a romance. It would work just as well without the romantic subplot.
It made me cry a lot. Nowhere near the level of Elizabeth Wein’s books set during World War II, but I would have been disappointed by a book set primarily in the trenches which didn’t emotionally affect me.
@Susan/DC, thank you for the shoutout to ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. It was my father’s favorite book; I still have his hardcover copy, published in the 1940’s. I think the analogue as seen from the British POV in WWI would be Robert Graves’s autobiography, GOODBYE TO ALL THAT. It’s a masterpiece.