Criminally Under-read Books
Today, we thought it would be fun to spare some time on books that we as booksellers think deserve more love, hype, and attention. These might be older titles or they might be newer ones that somehow got overshadowed. What they all have in common, though, is that we really wish you’d give them a chance (and let us know what you think if you do!).
Mariah: Night Theater by Vikram Paralkar
Night Theater cropped up on one of Book Riot’s best of 2020 lists early on in the pandemic and at the time I found it very difficult to get into a book. Mired alone in my apartment most of the day (my husband worked in a medical facility at the time), I struggled to have anything hold my attention, but oh my God did this book deliver. After fleeing scandal in the big city, a surgeon finds himself working at a rural medical clinic, forced to buy antibiotics out of pocket, squash his own bugs, and deal with the corrupt officials that nag him. But his whole life changes when a family of three appears one night at his clinic—a teacher, his pregnant wife, and their young son. All of them have wounds that surely must have killed them—and they did. Victims of a violent robbery, the family tells the surgeon they have been given a second chance at life: if he can sew their wounds and fix them up before dawn, they will live again. During the night, the surgeon and his assistant realize their fates are tied more closely to the family’s than they could have ever imagined and learn information about the afterlife that no mortal should know. Quiet, magical, inventive, and haunting, I devoured this book in the wee hours of the morning—I started it at 2 AM and couldn’t sleep until I finished it hours after. I wish more people would give this delightfully odd book a try—it’s been three years and I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
Bailey: Solar Storms by Linda Hogan
Solar Storms is a singularly beautiful novel, and I wish more people would read it. . It’s about this tangled web of love, loss, and home when Angela, a 17 year old girl, returns to her home of Adam’s Rib after spending most of her life in foster care. On her return, she discovers that an eager developer wants to install a hydroelectric dam that will reshape the landscape of Canada and North America. Set in the 70s amidst indigenous protest of this dam, Solar Storms follows Angela as she discovers her roots and forges stronger ties with her community. I love how it features all sorts of different relationships between these women who are related in various ways and the text is so rich because of that. I’ve reread it so many times, and every single time I am astonished by the craft. It manages to be pertinent and salient to the present day because, unfortunately, these socio-political situations keep happening. This is not a light read, but feels very intimate and if you like strong women, epic journeys, and community-based activism, you’ll love this book.
Mariah: Little Thieves by Margaret Owen
In my (not so humble) opinion, Little Thieves is one of the best YA fantasy books ever written, and yet it is not in the hands of every YA fantasy reader. How can this be so? This little shout out is my attempt to remedy at least a little part of that. Little Thieves stars Vanja (a little chaos gremlin), the goddaughter of the goddesses of Death and Fortune. She used to serve Princess Gisele as a faithful servant until she stole the string of pearls that made Gisele so beautiful and enchanting. Vanja now masquerades as the princess with the sole intent of stealing from the fabulously wealthy royals during their vapid little parties. This is all going great until she steals from the wrong house and angers the goddess of the forest surrounding it—this goddess curses Vanja. Oh, also? Gisele’s fiancé is majorly evil, and Vanja must work with unlikely allies to save the country and herself. Featuring a slow-burn romance with the detective sent to thwart her, an ominous curse, and an otherworldly caper, Vanja will steal your heart just as easy as any diamond. The sequel Painted Devils comes out this summer and is already one of my favorite books of the year (I was blessed with an advance copy). If you like fantasy, queer and neuro-atypical representation, and fun heists, do yourself a favor and read this book.—Mariah
Emily: The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta
Dreamy and reflective, The Moonday Letters is a strange and wonderful concoction—a slow burn that is also a compelling adventure as the protagonist, Lumi, searches time and space to find her lost spouse. Set in a future where humans have colonized the solar system, the story melds ecological concerns of the past, present, and future with a fractured romance. It asks us what we'll do for justice and what can be regained once it's lost. It hit me in my 19 year old wanna-be-an-anthropologist bones. It hit me in my 7 year old look-at-the-pretty-moon, my middle school mythology-obsession, and my 25 year old actually-I-really-care-about-this-planet bones. It even hit me in my crotchety-I-believe-in-love-but-it-doesn't-come-easy bones. Okay, that's enough hyphens. So when I say it was the perfect book for me, I really mean it was the perfect book for several versions of myself, all of which sat on the edge of my seat waiting for that final shoe to drop even after I turned the last page. It was hopeful, painful, moving, and meditative. The perfect place for all my selves to land, and maybe it'll be a good place for you to rest, too.
