Book Buzz: Jamaican Fiction, Historical Fiction, Social Satire, Funny Romances, Outlaws, and Midwives

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For August, we’re looking at a coming-of-age novel set in Jamaica, historical fiction that ranges from the Napoleonic Era to the mid-20th century, Kevin Kwan’s latest book, an amusing contemporary romance about cyclists, new Western reads, glamorous historic true crime, and a historical romance audiobook set in the American West.

If you enjoy coming-of-age fiction:

Ishi Robinson’s Sweetness in the Skin (2024)*

Teenager Pumkin lives with her mom, her Aunt Sophie, and grandmother in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica. Pumkin and Sophie have launched a plan to escape their poverty and their dysfunctional family, but in the meantime, all Pumkin can do is cultivate her thriving home baking business and take French lessons on the sly.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Charmaine Wilkerson.

*Ebook and audiobook also available on Libby.

If you enjoy historical fiction:

Lynda Rutledge’s Mockingbird Summer (2024)

Precocious thirteen-year-old Corky lives in a small, segregated Texas town in the early 1960s and loves the newly released novel To Kill A Mockingbird. That same summer, Corky befriends America, the daughter of her family’s Haitian maid, and inadvertently sets off a controversy when she invites America to play in the local church’s softball game.

Recommended for those who enjoy Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird.

Hester Fox’s The Book of Thorns (2024)**

If you enjoy historical fiction with magical realism elements, you might really enjoy this novel set in the Napoleonic Wars. A talented healer, Cornelia attaches herself to Napoleon’s army for work, carefully keeping secret why she is so skilled, the flowers she uses speak to her. As the army descends on Waterloo, the flowers tell her something else, that her long-lost sister is nearby. Complications ensue.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Diane Setterfield.

**Ebook and audiobook also available on Hoopla.

Nathan Gower’s The Act of Disappearing (2024)***

If you like your historical fiction with a more contemporary setting and/or more of a suspense vibe, try this one. A broke author/bartender is recruited to research a haunting picture, a woman falling from a train bridge while holding a baby. Her search for the truth takes her from present-day Brooklyn back to 1960s Kentucky.

Recommended for fans of suspense with a historical storyline.

***Audiobook also available on Hoopla.

Jennifer Deibel’s The Irish Matchmaker (2024)****

Set in early 20th century Ireland, this book follows Catríona, a matchmaker from a family of matchmakers. She plans to use the village’s annual matchmaking fair as a means to finally make a match for herself, with the son of the local lord. However, she doesn’t count on her cattle farmer client falling in love with her and wanting to match with her himself. Uh oh.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Helen Simonson.

****Ebook also available on Hoopla.

If you love romance:

Kevin Kwan’s Lies and Weddings (2024)

In Kevin Kwan’s latest work of social satire, Rufus Leung Gresham is the son of an English aristocrat and a Hong Kong model. Unfortunately for him, the family’s lofty name and expensive lifestyle disguises a mountain of debt. The Greshams are absolutely broke, and Rufus’s mother decides that it’s up to him to save the family by marrying for money. He can pick the heiress of his choice, but the only one he really wants is the girl next door who doesn’t have a dime to her name.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Emma McLaughlin.

Becca Kinzer’s Love in Tandem (2024)*****

Charlotte is no star athlete, but she agrees to compete in a tandem bike race to raise money to save the music program at the school where she teaches. As the school’s resident music teacher, she has a vested interest in saving her job. What she does not have a vested interest in, at least initially, is her partner in the tandem bike race–Zach, an inveterate traveler and the brother of her ex-fiance who has his own uses for the prize money. Still, they’re stuck together, quite literally, on a bicycle for 500 miles, and even worse, everyone keeps thinking they’re an item. You can imagine where this is headed.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Emily Henry.

*****Ebook and audiobook also available on Libby and ebook on Hoopla.

Western

Mark Warren’s A Last Serenade for Billy Bonney (2024)

When journalist John Blessing interviews a jailed outlaw named William H. Bonney, he doesn’t expect to find the man better known as Billy the Kid to be particularly interesting. It’s just an assignment, but he becomes obsessed with learning more, especially following Bonney’s death. He talks to those who knew Bonney best, those who loved him and those who hated him.

Recommended for fans of biographical fiction.

Richard Prosch’s Over Western Trails (2022)

This collection of 15 Western short stories is primarily centered around tales involving stagecoaches but also Western trails in general. Saddle up to read about adventures along the Pony Express Trail and more.

Recommended for fans of Western anthologies.

Nonfiction

Rena Pederson’s The King of Diamonds: The Search for the Elusive Texas Jewel Thief (2024)******

In the 1960s, Dallas was home to some of the richest people in the world. It was also home to a daring jewel thief who brazenly broke into mansions and robbed many of Dallas’s wealthiest residents, often sneaking into their houses while they were home. Despite his boldness–even smoking a few feet from his sleeping victims–he was never caught. Nevertheless, he intrigued a young Texas journalist named Rena Pederson, who revisits the case decades later with this book that chronicles 1960s Dallas just as much as it does the crime spree.

Recommended for fans of historical true crime.

******Ebook and audiobook also available on Hoopla.

Audiobook

Sara Donati’s The Sweet Blue Distance (2024)*******

In this historical romance set in 1850s Santa Fe, a trained midwife named Carrie ventures forth from New York City to New Mexico Territory. She’s answering an advertisement for a trained nurse, but she’s also eager to flee her own troubled past. On her journey west and in her time in Santa Fe, she finds trouble, hardship, hope, joy, and even love.

Recommended for those who enjoy Amy Harmon’s Where the Lost Wander and Dorothy Garlock’s work.

*******Ebook and audiobook also available on Libby.

What’s your favorite new-ish books? What books are you buzzing about this summer? Have you read any of these books? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of these items or to place them on hold.