Indies Introduce Winter / Spring 2016 Titles

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Fiction

  • Tuesday Nights in 1980, Molly Prentiss
    Simon & Schuster/Scout Press, 9781501121043, April 5, 2016 (Fiction)
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    Tuesday Nights in 1980 exudes an alchemical talent. Only magic can explain Molly Prentiss’ pitch-perfect evocation of the excitement, energy, and squalor that were palpable in NYC’s art world at the dawn of a new decade.

    – Anmiryam Budner, Main Point Books, (Bryn Mawr, PA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here

Fiction

  • Spill Simmer Falter Wither, Sara Baume
    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 9780544716193, March 8, 2016 (Fiction)
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    Poetic, precise, and playful, this novel takes readers through a year of the narrator's life with a rescue dog. Though it seems to rehash the oft-told tale of two lonely creatures finding solace in companionship, it is altogether wilder, utterly unsentimental, and profoundly moving. 

    – Anmiryam Budner, Main Point Books, (Bryn Mawr, PA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Ed Tarkington
    Algonquin Books, 9781616203825, January 5, 2016 (Fiction)
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    Infused with the haunting melancholy of a Southern Gothic novel, Only Love Can Break Your Heart is a suspenseful tale of heartbreak, betrayal, and timeless love. This is, without a doubt, my favorite debut novel this spring!

    – Shirley Wells, Watermark Books & Café, (Wichita, KS)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist, Sunil Yapa
    Hachette/Lee Boudreaux Books, 9780316386531, January 12, 2016 (Fiction)
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    Sunil Yapa immerses the reader in an explosive view of the 1999 Seattle WTO protests. By challenging assumptions and creating empathy for his characters in this gripping novel, he shows the convergence of a vast range of perspectives within a few city blocks.

     
    – Emily Adams, Third Place Books. (Lake Forest, WA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • We've Already Gone This Far, Patrick Dacey
    Henry Holt, 9781627794657, February 16, 2016 (Fiction)
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    Dacey’s perfectly crafted short stories of a blue-collar Massachusetts town and its unforgettable characters are told with dignity and heart. They reflect the hope and determination of people who still have further to go. This is the debut of a naturally gifted storyteller.

    – Mary Wolf, Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse (Santa Fe, NM)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • Relief Map, Rosalie Knecht
    Tin House Books, 9781941040225, March 27, 2016 (Fiction)
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    In her beautifully written, fresh debut novel, Rosalie Knecht puts us in the middle of summer in a small rust-belt town in Pennsylvania. Lulling prose, vivid characters, and a sense of placemake this a rich and memorable read from an exciting new talent.

    – Linda McLoughlin Figel, pages: a bookstore, (Manhattan Beach, CA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • Born on a Tuesday, Elnathan John
    Grove Atlantic/Black Cat, 9780802124821, May 3, 2016 (Fiction)
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    Born on a Tuesday is a compelling debut novel set during the time of a Nigerian politcal uprising that is at once frightening and horrific, yet authentic and compassionate. Masterful.

    – Jenny Lyons, The Vermont Book Shop, (Middlebury, VT)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • The Mirror Thief, Martin Seay
    Melville House, 9781612195148, May 10, 2016 (Fiction)
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    Martin Seay proves he is a talent to watch with this smart, ambitious debut novel that ranges from Vegas to Venice, and spans several time periods in between. The Mirror Thief is a winding tale with complicated characters and plenty of action.

    – Rebekah Hendrian, Book Nook & Java Shop, (Montague, MI)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • Hide, Matthew Griffin
    Bloomsbury Publishing, 9781632863386, February 16, 2016 (Fiction)
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    In a struggling small town in North Carolina lives the long-married couple Frank and Wendell.These are not characters we usually see in fiction – poor, rural, gay, and old – but Griffin draws them honestly, and we come to care deeply for them. 

    – Michael Barnard, Rakestraw Books, (Danville, CA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here

Middle Grade

  • Beetle Boy, M.G. Leonard
    Scholastic/Chicken House, 9780545853460, February 23, 2016 (Middle Grade)
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    Wickedly comedic buffoons, genetically modified villains, industrious insects, and a scrappy protagonist fighting for his father’s life keep this old-fashioned-feeling story fresh and contemporary.Readers will find themselves cheering for Beetle Boy and his amazing beetles.

    – Erin Barker, Hooray for Books! (Alexandria, VA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • Hour of the Bees, Lindsay Eagar
    Candlewick Press, 9780763679224, March 8, 2016 (Middle Grade)
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    This debut is so innovative, it’s almost audacious. As you read the final sequence in Hour ofthe Bees, you will be asking yourself, “Oh my gosh, am I really reading this? Am I really,really reading this?” And the thing is, YES, YOU REALLY ARE!

    – Will Walton, Avid Bookshop, (Athens, GA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here

Non-Fiction

  • Soul Serenade: Rhythm, Blues & Coming of Age Through Vinyl, Rashod Ollison
    Beacon Press, 9780807057520, January 26, 2016 (Non-Fiction)
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    Soul Serenade is a heartbreaking, gratifying memoir of family chaos, a personal identity crisis, and civil rights buoyed by memories of great music and artists. This is an important book for people to read.

    – Jamie Fiocco, Flyleaf Books, (Chapel Hill, NC)

Young Adult

  • Underwater, Marisa Reichardt
    Macmillan Children's/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (BYR), 9780374368869, January 12, 2016 (Young Adult)
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    This book, called Underwater, has actual resuscitative powers.

    – Will Walton, Avid Bookshop, (Athens, GA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • Anna and the Swallow Man, Gavriel Savit
    Knopf Books for Young Readers, 9780553513349, January 26, 2016 (Young Adult)
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    Orphaned and alone at the start of WWII, Anna is taken in by the mysterious Swallow Man. Like the Swallow Man, author Savit recognizes the power of language — that words can envelop a reader in an experience that manages to leave you enchanted and brokenhearted.

    – Sara Grochowski, Brilliant Books, (Traverse City, MI)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • The Girl from Everywhere, Heidi Heilig
    HarperCollins/Greenwillow Books, 9780062380753, February 16, 2016 (Young Adult)
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    The Girl from Everywhere has everything—mystery and adventure, complicated people and relationships, romance and intrigue, and that extra something special necessary for a really good read.

    – Danielle Borsch, Vroman’s Bookstore, (Pasadena, CA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • The Smell of Other People's Houses, Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
    Wendy Lamb Books, 9780553497786, February 23, 2016 (Young Adult)
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    Set in the decade after Alaska achieved statehood, this novel follows four teenagers as they fight for the life they really want. The Smell of Other People’s Houses is a thoughtful, realistic novel about community, both the one you are born into, and the one you can create.

    – Erin Barker, Hooray for Books!, (Alexandria, VA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • Kill the Boy Band, Goldy Moldavsky
    Scholastic Press, 9780545867474, February 23, 2016 (Young Adult)
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    The world of fandom is a fascinating and terrifying place. Watching someone wake up fromliving that dream (or nightmare) is told here with an obvious love for the drama and flair of a 1980s cult film. I loved this book, and cannot wait for more from Moldavsky.

    – Kari Meutsch, Phoenix Books, (Essex, VT)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • The Serpent King, Jeff Zentner
    Crown Books for Young Readers, 9780553524024, March 8, 2016 (Young Adult)
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    The Serpent King and its characters lurked in my head for weeks after reading this debut novel. Dill, Travis, and Lydia’s story, bumpy and sometimes tragic as it is, is a real story of friendship and heart.

    – Shoshana Smith, The Reading Bug, (San Carlos, CA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • End of FUN, Sean McGinty
    Disney Hyperion, 9781484722114, April 5, 2016 (Young Adult)
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    Put M.T. Anderson, Cory Doctorow, Andrew Smith, and Hunter S. Thompson in a blender and you will get Sean McGinty’s brilliantly funny debut. It is a coming-of-age novel like no other. McGinty has expertly crafted what is sure to become a cult classic for the tech generation.

    – Caitlin Baker, University Book Store, (Seattle, WA)
    Additional blurb(s) available here
  • The Square Root of Summer, Harriet Reuter Hapgood
    Macmillan Children's/Roaring Brook Press, 9781626723733, May 3, 2016 (Young Adult)
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    Gottie, a 17-year-old physics prodigy, has had a double dose of heartbreak. Since then, she’s immersed herself in a world of equations and theories. Harriet Reuter Hapgood addresses grief and the complexity of emotions that come with it in a way that rings true and does not romanticize loss.

    – Drew Sieplinga, Wild Rumpus Books, (Minneapolis, MN)
    Additional blurb(s) available here

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