Remember in 2020, when we all made resolutions to read more during lockdown but instead, we made a lot of sourdough and banana bread and downloaded TikTok?
Well, those 2020 hardcovers haven’t gone anywhere, bishhhh—and they’ve just been released as paperbacks for your summer (and all-year-round) reading pleasure! Let’s be real; it’s no secret that hardcovers—while incredibly beautiful—are heavy and hard to carry around all the time, and bringing a paperback to the beach just has “main character energy.”
I love it.
Some of these releases include N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became, which follows a man without a name, a politician and a mother and gallery owner as they feel the heart and power of Manhattan pulsing beneath them. Nannette “Nan” Hayes is having a very bad day when a busker (who’s actually an undercover cop) winds up dead on her kitchen floor, leaving her with a wad of cash and a scavenger hunt for a gold saxophone in Charlotte Carter’s Rhode Island Red (which happens to be the name of the chicken I own).
But it wouldn’t be a Tuesday (the day when new books are published) without some new releases, too. Nadiya Hussain, winner of the Great British Bake Off and host of the Netflix series Time to Bake, gives us 100 baking recipes that can be easily incorporated into your daily lives. Additionally, Ilhan Omar tells her story—from her life as a refugee in Kenya to becoming Congresswoman of Minnesota.
What goes around comes around, and these new releases—and newly released faves—will have you coming back for more.
Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own – Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (Nonfiction)
Begin Again, one of the greatest books about James Baldwin and the struggles he experienced while grappling with the ongoing failure of America, is now available as a paperback. Within its pages, Glaude turns to Baldwin for guidance as he deals with the systemic racism ripping its way across the country through both a biographical and analytical lens. Mixing both heard and never-before-heard interviews with Baldwin, Glaude compares and extracts crucial moments in Black history, and “bears witness to the difficult truth of racism’s continued grip on the national soul.”
Begin Again explores race and trauma on a national level while narrowing in and focusing on the memory and personal experiences of Glaude and calling forth a “new America.”
July 27, 2021, Crown
Nadiya Bakes: Over 100 Must-Try Recipes for Breads, Cakes, Biscuits, Pies, and More: A Baking Book – Nadiya Hussain (Cookbook)
In her new book, Nadiya Bakes, the much-beloved winner of The Great British Baking Show and host of the Netflix series Time to Bake circles back to her roots of baking and presents us with over 100 recipes for delicious baked goods. We can thank Nadiya’s husband for lighting the baking spark under Nadiya, as one year he asked for a cake… and the rest is history. This new cookbook is based on her Netflix series and contains simple, elegant and achievable bakes such as cakes, cookies, tarts, puddings and bread that will quickly become fundamental in your home. Some featured recipes include Key Lime Cupcakes, Spiced Squash Strudel, Cheat’s Sourdough and Raspberry Amaretti Biscuits.
Through the book, Nadiya has “created an ultimate baking resource for just about every baked good that will entice beginner bakers and experienced pastry makers alike.”
July 27, 2021, Clarkson Potter Publishers
No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America – Symone D. Sanders (Nonfiction)
Symone Sanders is not going to shut up. No, she’s going to continue to use her voice in this inspiring call-to-action paperback release of her book, No You Shut Up. The youngest national press secretary in the history of the United States urges readers to “find [their] authentic voice and use it to [their] advantage.” Sanders believes that the time is now and the change is within us. “We’re all winging it one way or another,” Sanders admits, but it’s time to “open your mouth and start talking. Loudly.”
July 27th, 2021, Harper Paperbacks
Rhode Island Red (A Nanette Hayes Mystery #1) – Charlotte Carter (Fiction)
Nanette Hayes’ day couldn’t get much worse—or so she thought. Her on-again-off-again boyfriend Walter is off-again, she offered to let a busker stay at her place for the night, and then, he ends up dead on her kitchen floor—and oh… he was also an undercover cop.
Not a good look for Nan.
The now-dead busker-but-actually-a-cop’s partner has taken an extreme disliking to Nan—yet within all of this, she finds a wad of cash hidden in her apartment meant to help the cop’s blind girlfriend. Wanting to do the right thing, Nan takes action, only to land her in even more trouble.
Charlotte Carter brings us on an adventure in the paperback release of her story Rhode Island Red. A scavenger hunt for a saxophone “worth its weight in gold” ensues and she’s trapped in a cycle of people who would kill for this instrument; “kill” being the operative word.
July 27, 2021, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
The City We Became: A Novel – N.K. Jemisin (Fiction)
The 2021 paperback release of four-time Hugo Award-winning author, N.K. Jemisin’s novel The City We Became, follows a young graduate student across Manhattan as he realizes… he has no idea who he is, not even his own name. But he does recognize and feel the power and history the exists within the city. In the Bronx, a gallery director finds strange graffiti around the city that speaks to her in inexplicable ways. A Brooklyn politician and mother understands the music she hears isn’t coming from outside, but from within the city itself. There’s a strange power lurking beneath the city that never sleeps, and they’re not the only ones who realize that.
July 27, 2021, Orbit
This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey From Refugee to Congresswoman – Ilhan Omar (Nonfiction)
When Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was eight years old, she was torn from her home in Mogadishu, Somalia, and forced into a refugee camp in Kenya. The youngest of seven children, Omar quickly learned the “deep meaning” of death and hunger and four painful years later, her family achieved refugee status and immigrated to Arlington, Va.
In less than twenty years, Omar would fight and break down every stereotype, burn every bridge and forge meaningful friendships and relationships with the communities around her. She became a grassroots organizer, graduated from college and was “elected to congress with a record-breaking turnout by the people of Minnesota.”
This is What America Looks Like combines stories of Omar’s tumultuous childhood with her inspiring story of how she got to where she is today. It is a “multidimensional tale of the hopes and aspirations, disappointments and failures, successes, sacrifices and surprises, of a devoted public servant with unshakable faith in the promise of America.”
July 27, 2021, Dey Street Books
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