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 finished reading Mona Awad’s We Love You, Bunny, which is a sequel/prequel to Bunny (one of my favorite books). The novel opens with Sam getting kidnapped by her former MA cohort who are enraged at the way they’ve been portrayed in her novel and decide to take turns sharing their side of the story with Sam as their captive audience. This was one of my most anticipated releases for the fall and it did not disappoint!” -Sarah Kee

“I recently finished The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey, which I was reading for a class. I think this may not have been a book that I would be interested in picking up from the description alone, but I’m very glad that I read it! A medieval murder mystery told in reverse from the last day to the first, we follow along the perspective of the village priest as he seeks to discover the truth of how the richest man in their small and poor village came to be dead in the river that cuts the village off from the rest of the world. Since it’s set in the cold and rainy days leading up to Lent, it’s also a good fall read as the cold begins to set in!” -Taylor Martin

“I recently finished Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout. This graphic novel tells the story of a WWII survivor whose granddaughter helps her learn her identity and connect her with her remaining family many years after the war. I was especially intrigued by the characters in the Dutch resistance using a secret printing press during the war. While the storyline is fictional, the author provides a lot of history and background about the real-life people who influenced her characters and the creation of this novel.” -Lacey Losh

“This month we’ve been reading Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! and Dinosaur Dance! by Sandra Boynton. On repeat. 5/5 would recommend both.” -Rosemary Sekora (and her assistant, Evan Sekora)

“I’m currently reading Melissa Fraterrigo’s The Perils of Girlhood, published this September. It’s a memoir about girlhood (particularly in the eighties and nineties), and the anxieties and joys that come with it. The essays are gritty but touching, and deeply relatable. Melissa created a great playlist to accompany this book, available on Spotify!” -Madison Wigley

“I began reading two separate series out of airport desperation this summer. I had so many flight delays and layovers that I found myself desperately seeking long narrative flows to tide me over. For southern and western flight delays, I’ve been reading Joe Abercrombie’s “The First Law” fantasy trilogy. I’ve finished The Blade Itself (vol. 1) and am in the middle of Before They Are Hanged (vol. 2). Lots of blood and gore, with seriously damaged but interesting characters whose lives are all defined by violence. For eastern flight delays, I’ve begun reading Bernard Cromwell’s “The Warlord Trilogy” about King Arthur. I’m in the middle of volume 1, The Winter King, which begins with Arthur in exile and Uther Pendragon nearing death. Forget all the Camelot Hollywood interpretations of the King Arthur story. This is grittier and set in the historic context of a post-Roman Britain where the Irish and Saxons fight with the petulant kingdoms strewn throughout Britain. I loved Cromwell’s Richard Sharpe series of books about a British soldier risen from the ranks during the Napoleonic Wars, so I’m hopeful that this new series will help me with this new second life I’m having where I live in airports waiting for the flight delay that—unlike my flights—always seems to arrive.” -Clark Whitehorn

“This month, I finished reading This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. The book follows two agents on opposite sides of a never-ending war who start exchanging letters, thus changing their lives and the trajectory of the war entirely. As we live through unprecedented and tumultuous times ourselves, I think it is well worth it to remember the simple, profound power of human connection and of the power in small, repeated actions that crest into change. Mixed with smart humor and prophetic references to pop culture, I highly recommend this sapphic journey through space-time.” -Rebecca Jefferson