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 finished reading R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis, which follows two PhD students as they make their descent into hell to save their thesis advisor’s soul. If you read and enjoyed her previous book, Babel, I think you’ll enjoy this one too!” -Sarah Kee

“I recently finished Home of the American Circus by Allison Larkin. I picked it up because I adored another of her novels, The People We Keep. I heard from more than one person that they didn’t enjoy Circus as much, or were disappointed in the book when comparing it with the other. I read it anyway and I’m glad I did. I think they were both rich stories with relatable characters, and they both have a young, struggling female protagonist at the heart of the story. The sort of character you can’t help but root for.” -Lacey Losh

“This month I finished Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. I listened to Careless People at a friend’s suggestion and thought it was a riveting interrogation of a company that’s created technology so ubiquitous to our daily lives. Meanwhile, Annihilation was an excellent start to spooky season and had all my favorite things: unreliable narrators in unreliable landscapes, cryptic fungal messages, and unstoppable transformations. It was a great follow-up to The Extinction of Irena Rey and I’m excited to pick up the next book in the series.” -Rebecca Jefferson

“I’m currently reading Stoner by John Williams, which follows an English professor at the University of Missouri in the early 20th-century. He’s stuck in a miserable marriage and pours everything into his teaching job, which so far is not panning out how he thought it would, despite his passion for literature. I especially love Williams’s descriptions of a university campus, which are often very autumnal, making this a great seasonal read.” -Madison Wigley