Stone Soup Digest 05.20.22
Welcome to the Stone Soup Weekly Digest! This is where I share what I'm up to and some of my favorite things from around the internet. Subscribe to Stone Soup to get this in your inbox every week.
Next week is going to be a big week! The paperback release of The Echo Wife AND the paperback collected trade of Eat the Rich are coming out! I’m so excited for both.
Get a load of the color on these babies:
Follow me on Instagram for a peek early next week at international covers, and get your pre-orders in today at the links above!
Another star for Just Like Home!
Just Like Home has received a second starred review from a major trade publication! Booklist’s gorgeous write-up by Leah von Essen says:
Gailey’s newest gothic novel is painfully suspenseful and richly dark, their rushing, intoxicating writing in peak form. Delightfully creepy and heartbreakingly tragic, Just Like Home is equal parts raw terror of a dark childhood bedroom, creeping revelations of a true-crime podcast, and searing hurt of resentment within a family. It’s a must-read for all gothic horror fans.
PA reads YA auction
PA Reads YA is an organization led by teens and for teens that creates teen-centered literary projects and opportunities across Pennsylvania. They’re raising funds for the ACLU to help fight book censorship! They’re almost at their goal of $4500. Let’s help them reach it!
Visit a Neighbor: Shaken & Stirred
Gwenda Bond’s newsletter is simply lovely. Bond shares what she’s learned over a decade of writing books, plus ‘top shelf recommendations’ including pairings once a week. You can get access to up-to-the-minute book news from a spectacular author. What’s not to love?
I’m Reading: The City Inside by Samit Basu
Joey is a Reality Controller in near-future Delhi. Her job is to supervise the multimedia multi-reality livestreams of Indi, one of South Asia's fastest rising online celebrities – who also happens to be her college ex. Joey's job gives her considerable culture power, but she's too caught up in day-to-day crisis handling to see this, or to figure out what she wants from her life.
Rudra is a recluse estranged from his wealthy and powerful family, now living in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood. When his father's death pulls him back into his family's orbit, an impulsive job offer from Joey becomes his only escape from the life he never wanted.
But as Joey and Rudra become enmeshed in multiple conspiracies, their lives start to spin out of control – complicated by dysfunctional relationships, corporate loyalty, and the never-ending pressures of surveillance capitalism. When a bigger picture begins to unfold, they must each decide how to do the right thing in a world where simply maintaining the status quo feels like an accomplishment. Ultimately, resistance will not – cannot – take the same shape for these two very different people.
Featured Release: The Patron Thief of Bread by Lindsay Eagar
A beautifully crafted middle-grade novel spiced with magic—and gargoyles!—from the acclaimed author of Hour of the Bees and Race to the Bottom of the Sea.
Fished from the river as an infant and raised by a roving band of street urchins who call themselves the Crowns, eight-year-old Duck keeps her head down and her mouth shut. It’s a rollicking life, always thieving, always on the run—until the ragtag Crowns infiltrate an abandoned cathedral in the city of Odierne and decide to set down roots. It’s all part of the bold new plan hatched by the Crowns’ fearless leader, Gnat: one of their very own will pose as an apprentice to the local baker, relieving Master Griselde of bread and coin to fill the bellies and line the pockets of all the Crowns. But no sooner is Duck apprenticed to the kindly Griselde than Duck’s allegiances start to blur. Who is she really—a Crown or an apprentice baker? And who does she want to be? Meanwhile, high above the streets of Odierne, on the roof of the unfinished cathedral, an old and ugly gargoyle grows weary of waiting to fulfill his own destiny—to watch and protect. Told in alternating viewpoints, this exquisite novel evokes a timeless tale of love, self-discovery, and what it means to be rescued.
Add The Patron Thief of Bread to your tbr here. Order it from your local independent bookseller, or order it via Bookshop.org to support independent booksellers throughout the US and the UK. For international shipping, you can try Barnes & Noble. If you prefer audiobooks, here’s a Libro.fm link. You can also request The Patron Thief of Bread from your local library — here’s how to get in touch with them. And if you’re at a place in the world or in your life that necessitates an order from That River Website, use this link to make your purchase go a little farther in helping folks by donating a portion of your purchase towards a charitable organization (at no additional cost to you).
If you’re a paying subscriber, come by the Stone Soup Supper Club for our weekly chat! I can’t wait to find out how you’re doing.
—Gailey
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