
Every month we let you know what weâve been reading and our monthly recommendations. Youâll get to see new titles with fabulous reviews from the Bay Books team. Weâre sure youâll love these fantastic books just as much as we do. We recommend a wide range of genres and themes. So get ready to explore more books!
Autumn’s Picks
Getting to Center by Marlee Grace
Reading this book is like having a mystical, cylindrical, persistent conversation with your dearest, most radically loving friend. I took notes and highlighted passages and applied concepts from the text to my mental health toolbox. Time and time again, I continue to return to this book when I’m feeling off-center.
Mushroom Rain by Laura K. Zimmerman and illustrated by Jamie Green
A lyrical picture book with lush, colorful illustrations that educates children and adults alike on the wild world of mushrooms. If you liked Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, this book feels like a children’s version. The back matter includes more information on fungi and mushrooms, as well as activities for readers!
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
This essay collection by one of the funniest introverts on the internet made me tehehe all the way from her Bachelorette application to the titular final essay. With her trademark dark humor and ability to tell it like it is, she discusses issues of race, gender, sex, poverty, and disability. She also irreverently embraces her introversion, to which I deeply relate. Here’s to all the homebodies.Â
Tina’s Picks
Practice Girl by Estelle Laure
Initially I was dismayed at Jo’s neediness and thought this was going to a typical ‘teenage angst’ book where things continue relentlessly with an unsatisfying finish. But truly, this book is a portrayal of a young woman learning to take control over her body, mind, and life. She realizes, through a very rude awakening, that she was so focused on her need for emotional attachment that she lost sense of her self-worth and became confused between sex and love. She calls out her male ‘best friend since fifth grade’ for not sticking up for her when she is called a ‘practice girl’ and she is right. She begins to focus on practices of equality and self-worth, rather than seeing herself as a shadow of boys. Extremely enjoyable and painfully pointed in its lessons.
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard
As a historian, Millard shines in this historical fiction! Exploring the Nile are explorers with god-like egos and their local guides (who’s knowledge keeps the explorers alive), as they fight to map the longest river in the world and find its headwaters. The beetle burrowing into Speke’s was totally repugnant (reminded me of a Star Trek episode) and I love the descriptive nature of her writing! There’s a third person who has a part in this story but I’ll leave that mystery to you when you read this book. I loved it and think you will, too.
Pure Flame by Michelle Orange
There’s an interesting question at the center of this book: in trying to avoid becoming our mothers, do we lose them? And perhaps ourselves? Irresistible and thought provoking! Makes you rethink many things about mother-child identities.
Amanda’s Picks
All the Colors of Life by Lisa Aisato
In between Aisato’s gorgeously illustrated pages lies a heartwarming reminder of what it is to be alive. Through the lens of our younger selves, we are immersed in all the wonderful intricacies of our love for the world, ourselves, and each other. Golden!
Nick: A Novel by Michael Farris Smith
Ever wondered what happened after Gatsby? Author Smith follows Nick as he encounters his next adventure.