Book Buzz: Fictional Kidnappings, New Harington, Generational Curses, Medieval Relic Heists, Soccer, Slashers, Space Disasters, and Cowboy Comfort Food

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For October, we’re looking at literary fiction about a summer camping gone wrong, relatively newly released Donald Harington stories, a jaunty tale of medieval relic heists, a story about a Tejano family throughout the decades, a novel about modern soccer, fiction and nonfiction audiobooks, and a cookbook.

If you enjoy literary thrillers:

Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods (2024)*

In August 1975, thirteen-year-old Barbara disappears from summer camp in the Adirondacks. Her prominent family owns the summer camp, and this is also not the first time a relative has disappeared. Years earlier, Barbara’s brother also vanished without a trace. What happened to Barbara and her brother? What secrets are her family hiding?

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Chris Whitaker, Tana French, and Chris Bohjalian.

*Ebook and audiobook also available on Libby.

If you’re a Donald Harington fan:

Donald Harington’s Double Toil and Trouble: A New Novel and Short Stories by Donald Harington (2020)

The University of Arkansas Press released this compilation a few years ago, but it is new to our library. Harington wrote numerous stories set in the fictional Ozark village of Stay More before he died in 2009. His novel Double Toil and Trouble has never before been published and the remaining short stories in this anthology are also previously unpublished or uncollected. A must read for Harington and Stay More fans.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Donald Harington.

If you love historical fiction:

M.T. Anderson’s Nicked (2024)

In 1087, a good-hearted but dreamy monk teams up with a notorious treasure hunter to find the bones of a saint. This sacred relic should help cure the plague ravaging the town of Bari, Italy. What could possibly go wrong?

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Umberto Eco and Daniel Kehlmann.

If you prefer family sagas:

Marcela Fuentes’s Malas (2024)

In the 1950s in a small town on the Texas-Mexican border, a mysterious woman curses Pilar Aguierre and her family for a perceived wrong. In the 1990s, Pilar’s granddaughter is preparing for her own quinceañera when she meets a mysterious stranger at her beloved grandmother’s funeral. Complications ensue.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Zoraida Cordova and Luis Alberto Urrea.

If you want literary sports fiction:

Joseph O’Neill’s Godwin (2024)

Two half-brothers, an American tech writer and a British soccer agent, join forces to scour the world looking for an up-and-coming soccer player from Africa named Godwin. The soccer agent half of the fraternal duo believes Godwin is the next big thing, but they don’t have anything to go on beyond his name.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Colum McCann.

If you need audiobooks:

Stephen Graham Jones’s I Was a Teenage Slasher (2024)**

I Was a Teenage Slasher is perfect for Halloween if you’re looking for a funny, thought-provoking horror read. Narrator Tolly is, indeed, a teenage slasher, living in 1980s Lamesa, Texas. Author Stephen Graham Jones is a big fan of the slasher genre and has crafted a book that is a unique twist on the concept and a love letter to the genre.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Peter Straub, and Adam Cesare.

**Physical copy also available in our collection.

Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space (2024)***

The 1986 Challenger tragedy still looms large over the US space program, and this book provides an in-depth look at the men and women behind the story. Author Adam Higginbotham, who’s also written a highly acclaimed book of the 1980s Chernobyl disaster, did extensive research and provides an overview of the history of the American space program, profiles of the Challenger victims, and an account of the warning signs that were missed before that fateful January day when the Challenger broke apart a little over a minute after launching.

Recommended for those who enjoy the work of David Grann, Patrick Radden Keefe, and Erik Larson.

***Physical copy also available in our collection.

If you enjoy nonfiction:

Kent Rollins’s Comfort Food the Cowboy Way: Backyard Favorites, Country Classics, and Stories from a Ranch Cook (2023)****

When I reviewed Tasting History last year, I commented that I was not a fan of many YouTube content creators, but Max Miller was one of the few exceptions. Well, Kent Rollins is another exception. The down-to-earth, good-humored Oklahoman is an authentic ranch cook with his own chuckwagon, and his cookbooks provide fantastic recipes that are as adaptable to the modern kitchen as they are to cooking out on the range, as well as engaging stories from Rollins’s personal experiences. This book focuses on hearty comfort food favorites like beef stew, pineapple upside down cake, and fried mac and cheese.

Recommended for avid cooks and fans of storytelling.

****Ebook for this book and Rollins’s two previous books also available on Hoopla.

What’s your favorite new-ish books? What books are you buzzing about? 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.