Welcome to Issue #62!
The trees are whispering…
Friends, welcome to another exciting week of The Pond Book News! Every Sunday, The Quiet Pond brings you a fresh issue of book news to catch you up on the week’s lineup of diverse book releases, cover reveals, book news, and sometimes more! This week Xiaolong and Sprout are excited to be teaming up to bring you another week of book news! Now, onwards to the brilliant books!
Book Releases This Week [October 18th – October 24th]
The Sacrifice of Darkness by Roxane Gay, Tracy Lynne Oliver, Rebecca Kirby, James Fenner
“When I was a young girl, my husband’s father flew an air machine into the sun. Since then, the days have been dark, the nights bright.”
A tragic event forever bathes the world in darkness. Follow a woman and a man’s powerful journey through this new landscape as they discover love, family and the true light in a world seemingly robbed of any. As they challenge the world’s notions of identity, guilt and survival, they find that no matter the darkness, there remain sources of hope that can pierce the veil.
Xiaolong: Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist, has given us a graphic novel and it releases this week! Set in a world where the sun has disappeared and light is only afforded to the affluent, this story explores greed and class inequality.
Releases on October 27th. Add this book to Goodreads!
Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard
Vân is a scholar from a poor background, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student.
Sunless Woods is a mindship—and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She’s come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân’s resolute integrity.When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân’s student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship–and to the devastating secrets they’ve kept from each other.
Xiaolong: If you haven’t read any of Aliette de Bodard’s expansive and incredible work, then you can start with Seven of Infinities which releases this week! Aliette de Bodard is known for her expansive Vietnamese-influenced SFF work, and Seven of Infinities is her latest story!
Releases on October 31st. Add this book to Goodreads!
Stake Sauce Arc 2: Everybody’s Missing (Somebody) by Roanna Sylver
Act 2, In Which: Our friends, some old and some new, must awaken a powerful, centuries-old magical force – before an old enemy gets there first…
Life for Jude is finally getting back to normal – or as normal as it gets when your new boyfriend has fangs, your old maybe-boyfriend isn’t dead after all (and has even bigger fangs), and everyone’s scrambling to adjust their lives accordingly.
There’s enough to worry about without evil, ancient vampires closing in, preparing dark rituals, and threatening to undo everything Jude, Pixie, and their loved ones have built together. But as they’ve all seen, normal doesn’t tend to last for long. And it’s hard to shake the feeling that something’s missing.
But then, it seems like everybody’s missing somebody.
Xiaolong: Stake Sauce 2 is out this week – and on Halloween! – and I could not be more delighted. This is the sequel to Stake Sauce Arc 1 – a wonderful story about former firefighters who are struggling with trauma and surviving – and is a story about friendship and has paranormal elements too. I’m looking forward to reading this one when it releases – it’ll be great one.
Releases October 31st. Add this book to Goodreads!
Book News
Cover Reveal: Root Magic by Eden Royce
Xiaolong: Spooky season is just around the corner, so I’m loving this spooky cover reveal! Root Magic is a historical ghost story set in the 1960s and follows two twins who are grappling with their lives changing forever whilst being taught rootwork, an African American folk magic that has been passed down the family. This sounds like SUCH a cool book and I’m excited to read this come 2021!
Illustration: Jen Bricking | Design: TBC
Cover Reveal: Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury
Xiaolong: I’m in love with the book cover for Blood Like Magic cover reveal and how it radiates this powerful witchy energy. This urban fantasy debut set in near-future Toronto, and a teen witch who is tasked with killing her first love to save her family’s magic – but she’s never been in love, and will have to find someone before she kills them. How cool does this sound?!
Illustration: Thea Harvey | Design: Rebecca Syracuse
Cover Reveal: Wings of Shadow by Nicki Pau Preto
Xiaolong: Nothing delights me more than book series with consistently good book covers, and I’m delighted that Wings of Shadow joins Crown of Feathers and Heart of Flame in their beautiful book covers. Wings of Shadow is the finale of this YA fantasy about phoenix riders and warrior queens.
Illustration: Kekai Kotaki | Design: Tiara Iandiorio
Cover Reveal: Jukebox by Nidhi Chanani
Xiaolong: From the author of Pashmina comes her next book, Jukebox, a story about two cousins who find a time-travelling jukebox – which may help one of them find their missing father. This book sounds wonderful but I also love the art – how whimsical and spunky!
Illustration: Nidhi Chanani (the author) | Design: TBC
Cover Reveal: Made in Korea by Sarah Suk
Xiaolong: I’ve been looking forward to this cover reveal for a long time, and it’s finally here! Sarah Suk’s Made in Korea, a young adult debut about two entrepreneurial Korean-American teens who butt heads in a Korean beauty business competition – and maybe fall in love. I love the art style in this, and can’t wait to read the book as well.
Illustration: Anne Pomel | Design: Sarah Creech
Cover Reveal: The Veiled Throne by Ken Liu
Xiaolong: Ken Liu’s stunning and sweeping Chinese-inspired high fantasy continues in The Veiled Throne, and – friends, look at the cover! Look at the detail on that CROWN! I’ve been meaning to read The Dandelion Dynasty, but this book cover makes me want to pick it up even more now…
Illustration: TBC | Design: TBC
Cover Reveal: Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
Xiaolong: Adiba Jaigirdar gave us sapphic brown girls in her debut, The Henna Wars, and I’m delighted that her sophomore book, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating features sapphic Bengali girls – one popular and the other an overachiever – who fake date each other to help each other… except they fall in love.
Illustration: Nabi H. Ali | Design: TBC
Cover Reveal: How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love With The Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Xiaolong: I loved the book cover for Raquel Vasquez Gilliland’s debut, Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of the Universe, so I’m so happy that her next book, How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love With The Universe, has just a gorgeous of a book cover. I can’t wait to meet Moon Fuentez and see how her story and hate-to-love romance unfolds.
Illustration: Veronika Grenzebach | Design: Laura Eckes
Cover Reveal: Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
Xialong: Elizabeth Lim has been blessed by incredible covers – from Spin the Dawn to Unravel the Dusk – and now her next book, Six Crimson Cranes, has a cover that’s just… art. I’d hang it on my wall. If you thought the book cover looked cool, wait until you hear what it’s about; a princess with a forbidden secret who is exiled by a stepmother, who has also turned the princess’s six brothers into cranes.
Illustration: Tran Nguyen | Design: TBC
Cover Reveal: A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen
Xiaolong: I’ve been eagerly awaiting the cover reveal for Jennifer Yen’s A Taste for Love, a story about an Asian-American teen who enters a baking competition – only to find that all the contestants are young Asian American men her mother has hand-picked for her. I cannot wait to read A Taste for Love – I have no doubt it’ll be fantastic and fun one.
Art & Photography: TBC | Design: TBC
Book Announcement: Ancestral ghosts and queer girls in Ciera Burch’s The Inevitability of Home
Xiaolong: Wow – what an announcement! The Inevitability of Home sounds phenomenal; I’m always in the mood for books about queer girls, and even more so for books about family and secrets. Throw in ghosts in the mix? This sounds like an intriguing and emotive read – I can’t wait for my heart to be shattered by this.
Book Announcement: Jewish-inspired folklore and forbidden magic in new YA duology from Kalyn Josephson
Xialong: This sounds incredibly awesome and I’m excited to learn more about this book? I love the idea of a story with Jewish-inspired folklore, an equestrian adventure, and a cross-country race where the characters will have to team up together? I’m also delighted that there’s an aromantic-asexual character, especially in a fantasy setting. I’m looking forward to this!
Book Announcement: Jay Coles is giving us another YA contemporary about family, choices, and navigating teenagehood
Xiaolong: Jay Coles has brought us Tyler Johnson Was Here – which I loved – and was also a contributing author of Hungry Hearts – and I loved his story there – so I’m really excited to see that he’s going to be giving us another YA contemporary – one that’s queer and sounds like it explores some confronting familial questions too. I’m really looking forward to this.
Book Announcement: Anna Bright’s forthcoming YA fantasy about astrology and hidden cities
Xiaolong: How charming and magical does this sound? (Very!) This sounds like such an enchanting story, a whimsical adventure, and journey about worlds to save? I’m utterly intrigued and want to learn more about The Song That Moves the Sun… I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for this book.
Book Announcement: A timely MG contemporary about four teens at the beginning of the pandemic by K. Ibura
Xiaolong: This is one of the first books I’ve seen about COVID-19 pandemic and being in lockdown – the other being Together, Apart – but I won’t lie: I’m really curious to read When The World Turned Upside Down. I love stories about the power of friendship and community, but I think the story’s context will be fascinating – and I’m excited to read this come 2021.
Book Announcement: An exciting YA anthology about gaming of all sorts, edited by Laura Silverman
Xiaolong: I feel like this anthology is a manifestation of my most desperate desires: an anthology dedicated entirely about games? Heck yeah! I’m particularly excited to read the stories about D&D – and hopefully video games too? – and am excited about the lineup – in particular, I’m excited for Gloria Chao, Amanda Joy, Anna Meriano, and Nina Moreno!
Book Announcement: A YA following a multigenerational Black family in Hollywood by Brandy Colbert
Xiaolong: This is fantastic news! Brandy Colbert is such a phenomenal author – and I was a huge fan of her latest book, The Voting Booth, and I am so happy we’ll be getting two new books from her! I love multigenerational stories, and am excited to read about Blossom Blackwood’s great-grandchildren and what they discover and learn.
Book Announcement: Melissa de la Cruz’s two forthcoming YA historical retellings of classic fairytales!
Xiaolong: Woah! This is one really cool announcement, so let’s break it down: (1) we’re getting romantic and historical retellings of classic fairytales from Melissa de la Cruz! (2) we’re also going to be getting an audiobook exclusive love story of unplayed voicemails about ‘technological missed connections’ (which sounds incredible to me!) and (3) a rom-com with on-and-off friends to lovers. Good news all around!
Book Announcement: Queerness and boy bands collide in Adib Khorram’s upcoming YA contemporary
Xiaolong: Darius The Great Is Not Okay remains to be one of my favourite YA books, so I’m delighted that we’ll be getting another story from Adib Khorram. In this one, the cast sounds like a star-studded one, about the only out gay member of a boy band who goes through a public breakup – and has to learn the cost of fame and success. Sign me up – 2022 cannot come fast enough.
Book Announcement: Sarah Glenn Marsh’s forthcoming YA horror, filled with haunted houses, queer girls, and evil lakes
Xiaolong: From queer necromancers to haunted and evil houses, Sarah Glenn Marsh has given us a queer ghost story with disabled rep as well. I’m terrified of anything supernatural related but… this read sounds so good. I want to know what happens! So it sounds like I’ll be reading this… even if it costs me my sleep.
Book Announcement: A girl wakes up at the bottom of a grave in Nino Cipri’s upcoming YA horror!
Sprout: I am absolutely aching for more YA horror in general, so this announcement makes me go 👀👀👀 in the best way possible! I am so very excited for this spooky story to join our shelves—2021 feels way too far away!
Book Announcement: A YA contemporary about punk girls and queer identity by Skye Quinlan
Sprout: Ah, here comes our second book this week about queer kids in bands! Questioning representation is so, so important in books about teenagers, and I know a younger me would’ve loved reading this as a teen. This looks like such a fun debut, and I can’t wait to meet these queer (potentially ace!!!) punk girls in 2022!
Book Announcement: An MG fantasy filled with Filipino folklore and nature spirits by Caris Avendaño Cruz
Sprout: I am always so here for Southeast Asian fantasy, and this middle-grade adventure inspired by Filipino folklore sounds like a book after my own heart. I’m beyond excited to hear more about this as we get closer to release date!
The Quiet Pond 
I cannot wait for Seven of Infinities, Hani & Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating and The Veiled Throne! Loved this post<3
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Omg I totally missed the cover reveal for Wings of Shadow, it looks amazing! Also never ehard of Seven of Infinities, but it sounds good!
(www.evelynreads.com)
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