UNP staff members are always reading new books, both within our list and outside of what we publish. Here are some of the titles where our noses have been buried.

“I just finished One Woman Show. I’m a short story and museum lover, so this unusual (and very concise) format really appealed to me. Author Christine Coulson spent her career writing for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. During that time, she dreamt of using The Met’s strict label format to describe people as intricate works of art. As I was reading the quote from Hamilton kept coming to mind,  “Who lives, who, dies, who tells your story?” but, in 75 words or less.” -Kari Andresen

“I’m finally reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I’m enjoying the shifts in narrator point of view and the way she reveals information to the reader. Video game creators are at the center, but it offers so much more than I expected. I’ve cried once so far!” -Rosemary Sekora

“I just picked up Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep. I haven’t started it yet, so here’s a shortened synopsis from the book: ‘Cep masterfully brings together the tales of a serial killer in 1970s Alabama and of Harper Lee, who tried to write his story. Rev. Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members, but with the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative assassinated him at the funeral of his last victim. Sitting in the audience during his trial was Harper Lee, who spent a year in town reporting on the Maxwell case trying to finish the book she called The Reverend. Cep brings this story to life, from the murders and courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South, while offering a deeply moving portrait of one of our most revered writers.’ I am super excited about starting this one! It was named one of President Obama’s favorite books in 2019.” -Taylor Gilreath

“This last month I was in a bit of reading slump, so I picked up an old favorite, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, a graphic novel chronicling her complex relationship with her father during her childhood until his death. Something conciliatory about not reading as much I usually do and intend to be is that at least I haven’t purchased anymore books to add to my huge TBR pile. Small victories (or losses, depending on your view of buying books you aren’t immediately reading…).” -Taylor Martin

“I came home with too many books from AWP this year and can’t wait to start reading them all! First up is The Vampire Gideon’s Suicide Hotline and Halfway House for Orphaned Girls by Andrew Katz. I’m a fan of other books that Lanternfish Press has published so I’m excited to give this one a read.” -Sarah Kee

“I was a bookseller in the past and I’d dreamed of working in an antiquarian bookstore. Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire revives those dreams for me—I love the weird and wacky stories the author tells about that world. At one point, he says (about not being allowed to use the company credit card) that ‘there’s some fear that I might spend it all on creepy unsaleable books, which on a certain level I resent and on another level I completely understand, because that is exactly what I’d do.’ Same, dude. Same.” -Jana Faust

“I just started another book from my Christmas gift list, The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber, in which he presents the necessity of changing the way we produce and consume food in order to build a sustainable food chain. Just opened it so I don’t have much to relate, other than that the reviews were really good.” -Annie Shahan

“Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes is a middle-grade story that follows a 12-year-old black boy, shot to death by a white police officer while playing with a toy gun in the park. Closely mirroring the real-life tragedy of the killing of Tamir Rice, and featuring the character of Emmett Till’s ghost, this story follows the aftermath of the shooting as seen through the lens of the ghost of the boy who was shot. The subject matter is very upsetting, but is presented in an honest, educational, and digestible way for middle-grade readers, and well worth a read for adults as well.” -Lacey Losh