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.

“This month, I’ve been reading a few UNP books from this current season, Eric Schnall’s I Make Envy on Your Disco and Hush of the Land by Smoke Elser and Eva-Maria Maggi. I highly recommend both books if they aren’t already on your TBR list!” -Sarah Kee

“I’m about halfway through Timothy Schaffert’s new book, The Titanic Survivors Book Club. If you enjoyed his previous books (The Perfume Thief and The Swan Gondola) then I think you’ll enjoy this one, too.” -Erica Corwin

“I recently finished Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew. This short book covers an array of technology designed to assist people living with disability. It also expresses the frustration felt by many in the disability community that, in many cases, creators of the technology don’t consult anyone with the particular disability they’re aiming to help. The author is blunt, funny, and helpful in sharing her research and ideas for creating more equitable technology.” -Lacey Losh

“This month, I’ve been reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. While I haven’t quite finished it yet, so far, I have found the book to be a delightful mix of entertaining and thought-provoking. Beyond the surface, which is a tale of two video game design partners, the book touches on the effects of fame, the cycles of friendship, and the immortality of digital media.” -Shannyn McEntee

“I’m currently reading When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain, which is a thriller crime novel where a detective tries to find multiple teenage girls that have gone missing from the area while attempting to heal from an unsolved murder of a young girl from her childhood. While it’s a great story, I’m about halfway through the novel, and I feel like it’s really not going anywhere. However, I am a fan of some of McLain’s previous work, so I’m hopeful that the ending will be worth it.” -Emily Casillas

“I recently finished book one of the Empyrean series, Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros. It’s not my usual reading choice but wow, was it a fun ride. I can’t wait to read book two. (If you, too, have become enamored with ‘Violence’ and Xaden please email me for further discussion.)” -Rosemary Sekora

“I just bought Alyson Hagy’s Graveyard of the Atlantic: Stories after reading Ghosts of Wyoming: Stories, an entertaining and gritty collection of stories about historical and modern Wyoming. Graveyard… looks at life on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a tough place for people and ships. Plus, one of the stories is about the Coast Guard—and I sailed off that coast while serving in the Coast Guard—so I wanted to read a brilliant writer’s take on the place.” -Clark Whitehorn

“There is an exclusive book membership club—a paid one that will remain anonymous here without sponsorship—a perk of this club being an additional copy is sent to share with another adventurous reader, which was me. The book is A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter. The writing is succinct and the narrative device clever if you don’t overthink its purpose: a voyeuristic bit of trashy reading masquerading as literature. In the end it is a depressing and nihilistic view of hedonism in post-war life confronted by its own recklessness, which was its most redeeming quality for me to elevate it from other fiction of this type.” -Nathan Putens

“I am, admittedly, a slow and distracted reader, never quite finishing any one book but making little dents in many. This month I returned for a moment to Kindest Regards by Ted Kooser. I have been lingering on a poem called ‘Sundial,’ which ruminates on a Sundial gifted to Kooser by friends who have passed away. I’ve been thinking about the constellation of gifts that would be left behind after me. And about the gifts I carry in my house, too. Marveling at the material little pieces of ourselves. This poetry collection often does that—makes beauty out of the every day by reminding us to look.” -Rebecca Jefferson