Indie Next March 2023

Indie Next List March 2023: Discovering Hidden Literary Gems

Introduction:

Are you tired of the same old bestsellers dominating bookstore shelves? Do you crave discovering fresh, captivating narratives from independent authors? Then you've come to the right place! This comprehensive guide dives deep into the Indie Next List for March 2023, highlighting the must-read books chosen by independent booksellers across the nation. We'll explore each title, delving into plot summaries, author backgrounds, and what makes these books stand out from the crowd. Get ready to expand your reading horizons and unearth literary gems you won't want to miss. This post offers a detailed look at each selection, providing valuable insights for readers seeking unique and engaging stories. Prepare to discover your next favorite book!


I. Understanding the Indie Next List

The Indie Next List is a curated selection of books chosen monthly by independent booksellers across the United States. These booksellers, deeply connected to their communities and intimately familiar with reader preferences, select titles they believe are both exceptionally well-written and resonate strongly with their clientele. This collaborative process ensures the list showcases diverse voices, compelling narratives, and books that deserve wider recognition beyond the mainstream. The Indie Next List offers a valuable alternative to best-seller lists, often dominated by big-name authors and marketing budgets, providing a platform for emerging talent and unique literary voices. Trusting the expertise of independent booksellers is a shortcut to discovering exceptional reads you might otherwise overlook.


II. Indie Next List March 2023: A Detailed Look at the Selections

(Note: Since the actual Indie Next List for March 2023 is not available to me as a large language model at this time, I will create fictional titles and descriptions to illustrate the structure and content expected in this type of blog post. Replace these with the actual titles and descriptions when they become available.)


A. "The Clockwork Heart of Prague" by Anya Petrova: A historical fantasy novel set in 19th-century Prague, this book follows a young clockmaker who discovers a hidden world of magical automatons and ancient secrets. Petrova’s evocative prose and intricate world-building create a richly immersive reading experience. The novel explores themes of identity, belonging, and the power of creation.

B. "Saltwater Echoes" by Liam O'Connell: This poignant contemporary novel tells the story of a family grappling with loss and rediscovering their connection to each other against the backdrop of a remote Irish coastal town. O'Connell's writing is both emotionally resonant and beautifully descriptive, capturing the raw beauty and harsh realities of island life. The novel explores themes of grief, forgiveness, and the enduring power of family.

C. "The Obsidian Mirror" by Zara Khan: A gripping thriller that blends mystery, suspense, and supernatural elements. Khan masterfully crafts a suspenseful plot with unexpected twists and turns, keeping readers on the edge of their seats. The novel explores themes of obsession, betrayal, and the blurring lines between reality and illusion.

D. "Beneath the Crimson Sky" by Javier Rodriguez: A sweeping epic fantasy novel set in a vibrant world filled with warring kingdoms, mythical creatures, and powerful magic. Rodriguez's world-building is impressive, creating a richly detailed and believable world. The novel features strong female characters, intricate political intrigue, and thrilling battles.


III. Why Support Independent Bookstores and the Indie Next List?

Supporting independent bookstores is crucial for maintaining a diverse and vibrant literary landscape. These stores are vital community hubs, fostering a love of reading and providing personalized recommendations. Choosing books from the Indie Next List helps elevate the voices of independent authors and allows these unique stories to reach a wider audience. Furthermore, it supports local businesses and contributes to the overall health of the literary ecosystem.


IV. How to Find and Purchase Indie Next List Books

Finding the books on the Indie Next List is easy. Many independent bookstores actively promote the list, highlighting these titles in their stores and online. You can also find the official Indie Next List online, often linked through the American Booksellers Association (ABA) website. Searching online for the specific book titles will also lead you to various retailers, both online and brick-and-mortar.


V. Conclusion: Embrace the Unexpected

The Indie Next List is a treasure trove of literary gems waiting to be discovered. By venturing beyond the mainstream bestsellers and embracing the recommendations of expert independent booksellers, you open yourself up to a world of unique and unforgettable stories. So, explore the March 2023 list, support your local indie bookstore, and prepare to be captivated by the hidden literary masterpieces waiting to be unearthed.


Article Outline: "Indie Next List March 2023: Discovering Hidden Literary Gems"

Introduction: Hook the reader and provide an overview.
Chapter 1: Understanding the Indie Next List: Explain the selection process and its significance.
Chapter 2: Indie Next List March 2023: A Detailed Look: Detailed summaries of each selected book (replace with actual books when available).
Chapter 3: Why Support Independent Bookstores: Emphasize the importance of supporting local businesses and the literary ecosystem.
Chapter 4: Finding and Purchasing Indie Next List Books: Guide readers on how to access and buy the listed books.
Conclusion: Encourage readers to explore the list and support indie authors.


(Detailed content for each chapter is provided above.)


FAQs:

1. What is the Indie Next List? It's a monthly list of books recommended by independent booksellers across the US.
2. How are books selected for the Indie Next List? Independent booksellers collaboratively choose titles they believe are exceptional and resonate with their readers.
3. When is the March 2023 Indie Next List released? (Replace with actual release date when available).
4. Where can I find the March 2023 Indie Next List? Check the American Booksellers Association website and participating independent bookstores.
5. Why should I read books from the Indie Next List? Discover unique and compelling stories often overlooked by mainstream lists.
6. How can I support independent bookstores? Shop at your local indie bookstore, attend their events, and recommend them to others.
7. Are there different genres represented on the Indie Next List? Yes, the list typically features a diverse range of genres.
8. Is the Indie Next List a reliable source for discovering new authors? Absolutely! It's a great way to find emerging talent and unique literary voices.
9. Can I find the Indie Next List online? Yes, many bookstores and the ABA website will feature the list.


Related Articles:

1. Best Indie Books of 2022: A retrospective look at the year's best independent publications.
2. How to Find Your Next Favorite Book: Tips and tricks for discovering new authors and genres.
3. Supporting Local Bookstores: A Guide: Learn about the importance of supporting local businesses.
4. The Power of Independent Publishing: Explore the benefits of self-publishing and small press publishing.
5. Top 10 Must-Read Literary Novels: A curated list of critically acclaimed literary fiction.
6. Understanding Literary Genres: A helpful guide to navigating the diverse world of literature.
7. The Best Books for Book Clubs: Suggestions for engaging and thought-provoking books for group discussions.
8. How to Start a Book Blog: A comprehensive guide to creating and maintaining a successful book blog.
9. Building Your Personal Reading List: Tips on creating a tailored reading list based on your preferences.


  indie next march 2023: Summer Sons Lee Mandelo, 2021-09-28 Lee Mandelo's debut Summer Sons is a sweltering, queer Southern Gothic that crosses Appalachian street racing with academic intrigue, all haunted by a hungry ghost. Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom that hungers for him. As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble. And there is something awful lurking, waiting for those walls to fall. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
  indie next march 2023: My Last Innocent Year Daisy Alpert Florin, 2023-02-14 An incisive, deeply resonant debut novel about a nonconsensual sexual encounter that propels one woman’s final semester at an elite New England college into controversy and chaos—and into an ill-advised affair with a married professor. It’s 1998 and Isabel Rosen, the only daughter of a Lower East Side appetizing store owner, has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years earlier, Isabel has always felt like an outsider at Wilder but now, in her final semester, she believes she has found her place—until a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves her reeling. Enter R. H. Connelly, a once-famous poet and Isabel’s writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful, talented: the woman she longs to become. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself, and the two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is, for better and worse. As the lives of the adults around her slowly come apart, Isabel discovers that the line between youth and adulthood is less defined than she thought. A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, Daisy Alpert Florin's My Last Innocent Year is a timely and wise portrait of a young woman learning to trust her voice and move toward independence while recognizing the beauty and grit of where she came from.
  indie next march 2023: Cloud Cuckoo Land Anthony Doerr, 2021-09-28 On the New York Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks * A New York Times Notable Book * A National Book Award Finalist * Named a Best Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, and many more “If you’re looking for a superb novel, look no further.” —The Washington Post From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, comes the instant New York Times bestseller that is a “wildly inventive, a humane and uplifting book for adults that’s infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences” (The New York Times Book Review). Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of recent times, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope, and a book. In the 15th century, an orphan named Anna lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople. She learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds what might be the last copy of a centuries-old book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the army that will lay siege to the city. His path and Anna’s will cross. In the present day, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno rehearses children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders whose lives are gloriously intertwined. Doerr’s dazzling imagination transports us to worlds so dramatic and immersive that we forget, for a time, our own.
  indie next march 2023: Off the Record Camryn Garrett, 2022-05-10 The behind-the-scenes access of Almost Famous meets the searing revelations of metoo in this story of a teen journalist who uncovers the scandal of the decade. Ever since seventeen-year-old Josie Wright can remember, writing has been her identity, the thing that grounds her when everything else is a garbage fire. So when she wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine, she's equal parts excited and scared, but also ready. She's got this. Soon Josie is jetting off on a multi-city tour, rubbing elbows with sparkly celebrities, frenetic handlers, stone-faced producers, and eccentric stylists. She even finds herself catching feelings for the subject of her profile, dazzling young newcomer Marius Canet. Josie's world is expanding so rapidly, she doesn't know whether she's flying or falling. But when a young actress lets her in on a terrible secret, the answer is clear: she's in over her head. One woman's account leads to another and another. Josie wants to expose the man responsible, but she's reluctant to speak up, unsure if this is her story to tell. What if she lets down the women who have entrusted her with their stories? What if this ends her writing career before it even begins? There are so many reasons not to go ahead, but if Josie doesn't step up, who will? From the author of Full Disclosure, this is a moving testament to the MeToo movement, and all the ways women stand up for each other. Brave, necessary, and unflinchingly real, Off the Record is an instant classic. --Marieke Nijkamp, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends A vulnerable and powerful pursuit of radical truth from a brave bold voice of this generation. —Kim Johnson, acclaimed author of This Is My America
  indie next march 2023: Full Disclosure Camryn Garrett, 2020-12-01 An unflinchingly honest, eye-opening, heartful story that's sure to keep readers talking. --Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give and On the Come Up Romantic, funny, hopeful, and unflinchingly real. --Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon Vs. The Homosapiens Agenda The uplifting story of an HIV-positive teen, falling in love and learning to live her truth. Simone Garcia-Hampton is starting over at a new school, and this time things will be different. She's making real friends, making a name for herself as student director of Rent, and making a play for Miles, the guy who makes her melt every time he walks into a room. The last thing she wants is for word to get out that she's HIV-positive, because last time . . . well, last time things got ugly. Keeping her viral load under control is easy, but keeping her diagnosis under wraps is not so simple. As Simone and Miles start going out for real--shy kisses escalating into much more--she feels an uneasiness that goes beyond butterflies. She knows she has to tell him that she's positive, especially if sex is a possibility, but she's terrified of how he'll react! And then she finds an anonymous note in her locker: I know you have HIV. You have until Thanksgiving to stop hanging out with Miles. Or everyone else will know too. Simone's first instinct is to protect her secret at all costs, but as she gains a deeper understanding of the prejudice and fear in her community, she begins to wonder if the only way to rise above is to face the haters head-on. . . . Full Disclosure is such a joy to read. --Erika Sanchez, National Book Award finalist for I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter A big-hearted love letter to inclusivity, bravery, and acceptance, Full Disclosure is a wonder of a book. --Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces
  indie next march 2023: Vote for Our Future! Margaret McNamara, 2020-02-18 In this charming and powerful picture book about voting and elections, the students of Stanton Elementary School learn how we can find--and use--our voices for change. Every two years, on the first Tuesday of November, Stanton Elementary School closes for the day. For vacation? Nope! For repairs? No way! Stanton Elementary School closes so that it can transform itself into a polling station. People can come from all over to vote for the people who will make laws for the country. Sure, the Stanton Elementary School students might be too young to vote themselves, but that doesn't mean they can't encourage their parents, friends, and family to vote! After all, voting is how this country sees change--and by voting today, we can inspire tomorrow's voters to change the future.
  indie next march 2023: Weyward Emilia Hart, 2023-03-07 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF TWO GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS (Best Debut Novel & Best Historical Fiction) An Indie Next March 2023 Pick • A LibraryReads March 2023 Pick • An Amazon Best Books of the Year So Far 2023 Pick A brave and original debut, Weyward is a spellbinding story about what may transpire when the natural world collides with a legacy of witchcraft. ––Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The London Séance Society I am a Weyward, and wild inside. 2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great-aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she suspects that her great-aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century. 1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. When Altha was a girl, her mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence of witchcraft is laid out against Altha, she knows it will take all her powers to maintain her freedom. 1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom. Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an astonishing debut, and an enthralling novel of female resilience.
  indie next march 2023: Diary of a Single Wedding Planner Violet Howe, 2015-06-18 Wedding planner Tyler Warren left heartbreak behind when she ran away from her small Southern hometown and started a new life in a big city. Years later, she wants to believe in the fairy-tale endings her job promotes, but the clients she meets day after day seem to be more “Crazily Ever After” than “Happily Ever After.” Meanwhile, her own attempts at romance play out as bizarre comedies rather than love stories, and she’s starting to think Prince Charming either fell off his horse or got eaten by a dragon. When unresolved issues from Tyler’s past complicate things even further, she discovers she may yet have some things to figure out before she can find her own happy ending. This delightful first book in the Tales Behind the Veils series chronicles Tyler’s wacky misadventures, both personal and professional. Whether she’s getting insane requests from brides or outlandish requests on dates, you’re sure to be charmed and entertained by the Diary of a Single Wedding Planner.
  indie next march 2023: Never Simple Liz Scheier, 2022-03-01 This gripping and darkly funny memoir “is a testament to the undeniable, indestructible love between a mother and a daughter” (Isaac Mizrahi). Liz Scheier’s mother was a news junkie, a hilarious storyteller, a fast-talking charmer you couldn’t look away from, a single mother whose devotion crossed the line into obsession, and—when in the grips of the mental illness that plagued her—a masterful liar. On an otherwise uneventful afternoon when Scheier was eighteen, her mother sauntered into the room and dropped two bombshells. First, that she had been married for most of the previous two decades to a man Liz had never heard of and, second, that the man she had claimed was Liz’s dead father was entirely fictional. She’d made him up—his name, the stories, everything. Those big lies were the start, but not the end; it had taken dozens of smaller lies to support them, and by the time she was done she had built a fairy-tale, half-true life for the two of them. Judith Scheier’s charm was more than matched by her eccentricity, and Liz had always known there was something wrong in their home. After all, other mothers didn’t raise a child single-handedly with no visible source of income, or hide their children behind fake Social Security numbers, or host giant parties in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment only to throw raging tantrums when the door closed behind the guests. Now, decades later, armed with clues to her father’s identity—and as her mother’s worsening dementia reveals truths she never intended to share—Liz attempts to uncover the real answers to the mysteries underpinning her childhood. Trying to construct a “normal” life out of decidedly abnormal roots, she navigates her own circuitous path to adulthood: a bizarre breakup, an unexpected romance, and the birth of her son and daughter. Along the way, Liz wrestles with questions of what we owe our parents even when they fail us, and of how to share her mother’s hilarity, limitless love, and creativity with children—without passing down the trauma of her mental illness. Never Simple is the story of enduring the legacy of a hard-to-love parent with compassion, humor, and, ultimately, self-preservation.
  indie next march 2023: Born Into This Adam Thompson, 2021-07-13 * The Story Prize Spotlight Award, Winner * Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, Shortlist * Queensland Literary Awards – University of Southern Queensland Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection, Shortlist * Age Book of the Year award, Finalist * An ABA Indie Next pick for “Great New Reads” for August. * A Best Native Book of 2021 —The Tribal College Journal * A Best Book of the Year —Independent Book Review The remarkable stories in Born Into This are eye-opening, razor-sharp, and entertaining, often all at once. From an Aboriginal ranger trying to instill some pride in wayward urban teens on the harsh islands off the coast of Tasmania, to those scraping by on the margins of white society railroaded into complex and compromised decisions, Adam Thompson presents a powerful indictment of colonialism and racism. With humor, pathos, and the occasional sly twist, Thompson’s characters confront discrimination, untimely funerals, classroom politics, the ongoing legacy of cultural destruction, and — overhanging all like a discomforting, burgeoning awareness for both black and white Australia — the inexorable disappearance of the remnant natural world. A legacy of cultural destruction in Australia and the disappearance of the natural world loom over stories of Aboriginal rangers, untimely funerals and angry bees in this sharp fiction debut. —New York Times Book Review With its wit, intelligence and restless exploration of the parameters of race and place, Thompson’s debut collection is a welcome addition to the canon of Indigenous Australian writers. —Thuy On, The Guardian
  indie next march 2023: Firekeeper's Daughter Angeline Boulley, 2021-03-16 A PRINTZ MEDAL WINNER! A MORRIS AWARD WINNER! AN AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH LITERATURE AWARD YA HONOR BOOK! A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller Soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground. “One of this year's most buzzed about young adult novels.” —Good Morning America A TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time Selection Amazon's Best YA Book of 2021 So Far (June 2021) A 2021 Kids' Indie Next List Selection An Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection A PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection With four starred reviews, Angeline Boulley's debut novel, Firekeeper's Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, perfect for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange. Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims. Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.
  indie next march 2023: Code Name Hélène Ariel Lawhon, 2020-03-31 Based on the thrilling real-life story of a socialite spy and astonishing woman who killed a Nazi with her bare hands and went on to become one of the most decorated women in WWII—from the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia. Will fascinate readers of World War II history and thrill fans of fierce, brash, independent women. —Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours Told in interweaving timelines organized around the four code names Nancy used during the war, Code Name Hélène is a spellbinding and moving story of enduring love, remarkable sacrifice and unfaltering resolve that chronicles the true exploits of a woman who deserves to be a household name. It is 1936 and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris who has bluffed her way into a reporting job for Hearst newspaper when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. No sooner does Henri sweep Nancy off her feet and convince her to become Mrs. Fiocca than the Germans invade France and she takes yet another name: a code name. As Lucienne Carlier, Nancy smuggles people and documents across the border. Her success and her remarkable ability to evade capture earns her the nickname The White Mouse from the Gestapo. With a five million franc bounty on her head, Nancy is forced to escape France and leave Henri behind. When she enters training with the Special Operations Executives in Britain, her new comrades are instructed to call her Helene. And finally, with mission in hand, Nancy is airdropped back into France as the deadly Madam Andree, where she claims her place as one of the most powerful leaders in the French Resistance, armed with a ferocious wit, her signature red lipstick, and the ability to summon weapons straight from the Allied Forces. But no one can protect Nancy if the enemy finds out these four women are one and the same, and the closer to liberation France gets, the more exposed she—and the people she loves—become.
  indie next march 2023: Axtara - Banking and Finance Max Florschutz, 2020-12-22 From the mind behind Shadow of an Empire and Colony comes a new YA Fantasy adventure full of friendship, discovery, and finance! Meet Axtara, a young dragon just leaving the nest in pursuit of her lifelong dream: To own and operate her own bank. Her destination? The edge of known civilization: Elnacier. The coastal kingdom is small, but brimming with natural resources and poised for an economic boom if the right conditions can be met. If. Change is never easy, and Axtara is going to have her claws full founding Elnacier's first bank as she runs up against skeptical townsfolk, stubborn ministers, suspicious business owners, and tradition itself. Especially as she's also about to be Elnacier's first dragon ...
  indie next march 2023: Every Last Fear Alex Finlay, 2021-03-02 “High-energy . . . Finlay expands the puzzle and ratchets up the action.” —New York Times This debut is gripping from the first bone-chilling line until the final page. —Newsweek One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021: • Newsweek • CNN • E! Online • Goodreads • BuzzFeed • PopSugar • BookBub • Bibliofile • Mystery and Suspense A LibraryReads Selection — A Top Book Voted by Librarians for March 2021 An Indie Next Pick — A Top Book Voted by Independent Bookstores for March 2021 In one of the year’s most anticipated debut psychological thrillers, a family made infamous by a true crime documentary is found dead, leaving their surviving son to uncover the truth about their final days. “They found the bodies on a Tuesday.” So begins this twisty and breathtaking novel that traces the fate of the Pine family, a thriller that will both leave you on the edge of your seat and move you to tears. After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family—his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister—have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain—and they won’t tell Matt why. The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny—currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte—was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: the night Charlotte was killed Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime. When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media, and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. Now, as the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison—putting his own life in peril—and forcing him to confront his every last fear. Told through multiple points-of-view and alternating between past and present, Alex Finlay's Every Last Fear is not only a page-turning thriller, it’s also a poignant story about a family managing heartbreak and tragedy, and living through a fame they never wanted.
  indie next march 2023: Last Girl Ghosted Lisa Unger, 2021-10-05 A five-alarm fire of a situation…the surprises keep coming. —The New York Times Secrets, obsession and vengeance converge in this riveting thriller about an online dating match turned deadly cat-and-mouse game, from the New York Times bestselling author of Confessions on the 7:45 She met him through a dating app. An intriguing picture on a screen, a date at a downtown bar. What she thought might be just a quick hookup quickly became much more. She fell for him—hard. It happens sometimes, a powerful connection with a perfect stranger takes you by surprise. Could it be love? But then, just as things were getting real, he stood her up. Then he disappeared—profiles deleted, phone disconnected. She was ghosted. Maybe it was her fault. She shared too much, too fast. But isn't that always what women think—that they're the ones to blame? Soon she learns there were others. Girls who thought they were in love. Girls who later went missing. She had been looking for a connection, but now she's looking for answers. Chasing a digital trail into his dark past—and hers—she finds herself on a dangerous hunt. And she's not sure whether she's the predator—or the prey. Don't miss The New Couple in 5B, Lisa Unger's newest psychological thriller about a couple that inherits an apartment with a truly chilling past. Looking for more spine-tingling thrillers? Check out these other titles by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger: Under My Skin The Stranger Inside Confessions on the 7:45 Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six The New Couple in 5B (coming March 2024!)
  indie next march 2023: The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven Nathaniel Ian Miller, 2021-10-26 In this briskly entertaining (New York Times Book Review), transporting and wholly original (People Magazine) novel, one man banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle, and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything. In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves a restless life in Stockholm to seek adventure in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where darkness reigns four months of the year and he might witness the splendor of the Northern Lights one night and be attacked by a polar bear the next. But his time as a miner ends when an avalanche nearly kills him, leaving him disfigured, and Sven flees even further, to an uninhabited fjord. There, with the company of a loyal dog, he builds a hut and lives alone, testing himself against the elements. The teachings of a Finnish fur trapper, along with encouraging letters from his family and a Scottish geologist who befriended him in the mining camp, get him through his first winter. Years into his routine isolation, the arrival of an unlikely visitor salves his loneliness, sparking a chain of surprising events that will bring Sven into a family of fellow castoffs and determine the course of the rest of his life. Written with wry humor and in prose as breathtaking as the stark landscape it evokes, The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven is a testament to the strength of our human bonds, reminding us that even in the most inhospitable conditions on the planet, we are not beyond the reach of love. #1 Indie Next Pick Finalist for the Vermont Book Award Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
  indie next march 2023: The Order of Odd-Fish James Kennedy, 2008-08-12 JO LAROUCHE HAS lived her 13 years in the California desert with her Aunt Lily, ever since she was dropped on Lily’s doorstep with this note: This is Jo. Please take care of her. But beware. This is a dangerous baby. At Lily’s annual Christmas costume party, a variety of strange events take place that lead Jo and Lily out of California forever—and into the mysterious, strange, fantastical world of Eldritch City. There, Jo learns the scandalous truth about who she is, and she and Lily join the Order of Odd-Fish, a collection of knights who research useless information. Glamorous cockroach butlers, pointless quests, obsolete weapons, and bizarre festivals fill their days, but two villains are controlling their fate. Jo is inching closer and closer to the day when her destiny is fulfilled, and no one in Eldritch City will ever be the same.
  indie next march 2023: Heritage and Hoop Skirts Paul Hardin Kapp, 2022-10-26 Winner of the 2023 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize Winner of the 2023 UMW Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize For over eighty years, tourists have flocked to Natchez, Mississippi, seeking the “Old South,” but what they encounter is invention: a pageant and rewrite of history first concocted during the Great Depression. In Heritage and Hoop Skirts: How Natchez Created the Old South, author Paul Hardin Kapp reveals how the women of the Natchez Garden Club saved their city, created one of the first cultural tourism economies in the United States, changed the Mississippi landscape through historic preservation, and fashioned elements of the Lost Cause into an industry. Beginning with the first Natchez Spring Pilgrimage of Antebellum Homes in 1932, such women as Katherine Grafton Miller, Roane Fleming Byrnes, and Edith Wyatt Moore challenged the notion that smokestack industries were key to Natchez’s prosperity. These women developed a narrative of graceful living and aristocratic gentlepeople centered on grand but decaying mansions. In crafting this pageantry, they created a tourism magnet based on the antebellum architecture of Natchez. Through their determination and political guile, they enlisted New Deal programs, such as the WPA Writers’ Project and the Historic American Buildings Survey, to promote their version of the city. Their work did save numerous historic buildings and employed both white and African American workers during the Depression. Still, the transformation of Natchez into a tourist draw came at a racial cost and further marginalized African American Natchezians. By attending to the history of preservation in Natchez, Kapp draws on a rich archive of images, architectural documents, and popular culture to explore how meaning is assigned to place and how meaning evolves over time. In showing how and why the Natchez buildings of the “Old South” were first preserved, commercialized, and transformed into a brand, this volume makes a much-needed contribution to ongoing debates over the meaning attached to cultural patrimony.
  indie next march 2023: Planetside Michael Mammay, 2018-07-31 “Planetside is a smart and fast-paced blend of mystery and boots-in-the-dirt military SF that reads like a high-speed collision between Courage Under Fire and Heart of Darkness.” – Marko Kloos, bestselling author of the Frontline series A seasoned military officer uncovers a deadly conspiracy on a distant, war-torn planet… War heroes aren't usually called out of semi-retirement and sent to the far reaches of the galaxy for a routine investigation. So when Colonel Carl Butler answers the call from an old and powerful friend, he knows it's something big—and he's not being told the whole story. A high councilor's son has gone MIA out of Cappa Base, the space station orbiting a battle-ravaged planet. The young lieutenant had been wounded and evacuated—but there's no record of him having ever arrived at hospital command. The colonel quickly finds Cappa Base to be a labyrinth of dead ends and sabotage: the hospital commander stonewalls him, the Special Ops leader won't come off the planet, witnesses go missing, radar data disappears, and that’s before he encounters the alien enemy. Butler has no choice but to drop down onto a hostile planet—because someone is using the war zone as a cover. The answers are there—Butler just has to make it back alive… “Not just for military SF fans—although military SF fans will love it—Planetside is an amazing debut novel, and I’m looking forward to what Mammay writes next.” – Tanya Huff, author of the Confederation and Peacekeeper series
  indie next march 2023: Too Sweet Keith Elliot Greenberg, 2020-09-01 Keith Elliot Greenberg chronicles the growth of indie wrestling from bingo halls to a viable alternative to the WWE and speaks to those involved in the Alternative Wrestling League with remarkable candor, gaining behind-the-scenes knowledge of this growing enterprise. As COVID-19 utterly changed the world as we know it, only one sport was able to pivot and offer consistent, new, live programming on a weekly basis: professional wrestling. In 2017, after being told that no independent wrestling group could draw a crowd of more than 10,000, a group of wrestlers took up the challenge. For several years, these gladiators had been performing in front of rabid crowds and understood the hunger for wrestling that was different from the TV-slick product. In September 2018, they had the numbers to prove it: 11,263 fans filled the Sears Center Arena for the All In pay-per-view event, ushering in a new era. A year later, WWE had its first major head-to-head competitor in nearly two decades when All Elite Wrestling debuted on TNT. Acclaimed wrestling historian Keith Elliot Greenberg’s Too Sweet takes readers back to the beginning, when a half century ago outlaw promotions challenged the established leagues, and guides us into the current era. He paints a vivid picture of promotions as diverse as New Japan, Ring of Honor, Revolution Pro, Progress, and Chikara, and the colorful figures who starred in each. This is both a dynamic snapshot and the ultimate history of a transformational time in professional wrestling.
  indie next march 2023: Before We Were Strangers Renée Carlino, 2015-08-18 From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M
  indie next march 2023: The Shape of Thunder Jasmine Warga, 2021-05-11 An extraordinary new novel from Jasmine Warga, Newbery Honor–winning author of Other Words for Home, about loss and healing—and how friendship can be magical. Cora hasn’t spoken to her best friend, Quinn, in a year. Despite living next door to each other, they exist in separate worlds of grief. Cora is still grappling with the death of her beloved sister in a school shooting, and Quinn is carrying the guilt of what her brother did. On the day of Cora’s twelfth birthday, Quinn leaves a box on her doorstep with a note. She has decided that the only way to fix things is to go back in time to the moment before her brother changed all their lives forever—and stop him. In spite of herself, Cora wants to believe. And so the two former friends begin working together to open a wormhole in the fabric of the universe. But as they attempt to unravel the mysteries of time travel to save their siblings, they learn that the magic of their friendship may actually be the key to saving themselves. The Shape of Thunder is a deeply moving story, told with exceptional grace, about friendship and loss—and how believing in impossible things can help us heal.
  indie next march 2023: What We Harvest Ann Fraistat, 2022-03-15 For fans of Wilder Girls comes a nightmarish debut guaranteed to keep you up through the night, about an idyllic small town poisoned by its past, and one girl who must fight the strange disease that's slowly claiming everyone she loves. Wren owes everything she has to her hometown, Hollow’s End, a centuries-old, picture-perfect slice of America. Tourists travel miles to marvel at its miracle crops, including the shimmering, iridescent wheat of Wren’s family’s farm. At least, they did. Until five months ago. That’s when the Quicksilver blight first surfaced, poisoning the farms of Hollow’s End one by one. It began by consuming the crops, thick silver sludge bleeding from the earth. Next were the animals. Infected livestock and wild creatures staggered off into the woods by day—only to return at night, their eyes fogged white, leering from the trees. Then the blight came for the neighbors. Wren is among the last locals standing, and the blight has finally come for her, too. Now the only one she can turn to is her ex, Derek, the last person she wants to call. They haven’t spoken in months, but Wren and Derek still have one thing in common: Hollow’s End means everything to them. Only, there’s much they don’t know about their hometown and its celebrated miracle crops. And they’re about to discover that miracles aren’t free. Their ancestors have an awful lot to pay for, and Wren and Derek are the only ones left to settle old debts.
  indie next march 2023: Wildseed Witch (Book 1) Marti Dumas, 2022-05-10 A fun middle-grade contemporary fantasy with an all-BIPOC cast, about a social-media-loving tween who gets sent to an ultra-private witch camp Hasani’s post-seventh-grade summer to-do list is pretty simple: get a bigger following for her makeup YouTube channel and figure out how to get her parents back together. What she does NOT expect is that an emotional outburst will spark a latent magical ability in her. Or that the magic will be strong enough to attract the attention of witches. Or that before she can say #BlackGirlMagic, she’ll be shipped off on a scholarship to a fancy finishing school for talented young ladies. Les Belles Demoiselles is a literal charm school. Here, generations of young ladies from old-money witch families have learned to harness their magic, and alumnae grow to become some of the most powerful women across industries, including politicians, philanthropists, CEOs, entrepreneurs—and yes, even social media influencers. Needless to say, admission to the school is highly coveted, very exclusive . . . and Hasani sticks out like a weed in a rose bouquet. While the other girls have always known they were destined to be witches, Hasani is a Wildseed––a stray witch from a family of non-witches, with no background knowledge, no way to control her magic, and a lot to catch up on. Wildseed may be an insult that the other girls throw at her, but Wildseeds are more powerful than they know. And Hasani will learn that there are ways to use magic and thrive that can never be taught in a classroom.
  indie next march 2023: Blue Shadows Fall Lenore Stutznegger, 2021-11-09 They are so lovely and wear the face of your loved ones, but more beautiful than you could ever imagine. Lovely things shouldn't draw you in and kill you. You almost want them to. Seventeen-year-old Blue Haven, gifted with superhuman sight since birth, dreams of becoming a warrior-not that anything's happened near the wall since Old Man Amos was attacked by that beaver. The Shadow Elves-humans infected by a zombie apocalypse-like plague-have died out over the past 150 years, leaving life altogether boring. In her quiet farming village nestled in the shadows of the Smoky Mountains, warriors are no more than a formality. But Blue's unique sight is beginning to show her some troubling things. A suspicious green-eyed outsider. A strikingly beautiful Shadow Elf. These visions can't be real-because if they are, that means everyone's been wrong. Dead wrong. They are not the last survivors in the world. And they aren't prepared for the reality Blue's eyes are showing her. The outsiders want in, and they're hungry.
  indie next march 2023: The Dictionary of Lost Words Pip Williams, 2021-04-06 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “Delightful . . . [a] captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded.”—The New York Times Book Review “A marvelous fiction about the power of language to elevate or repress.”—Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of People of the Book Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men. As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages. Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world. WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARD
  indie next march 2023: The Homecoming Andrew Pyper, 2019-02-26 Instant National Bestseller Bestselling author Andrew Pyper returns with a riveting psychological thriller about how the people you’ve known your whole life can suddenly become strangers. What if everything you knew about the people you loved was a lie? After the death of their absentee father, Aaron and Bridge Quinlan travel to a vast rainforest property in the Pacific Northwest to hear the reading of his will. There, they meet up with their mother and troubled sister, Franny, and are shocked to discover the will’s terms: in order to claim their inheritance they must all remain at the estate for thirty days without any contact with the outside world. Despite their concerns, they agree. The Quinlans soon come to learn their family has more secrets than they ever imagined—revelations that at first inspire curiosity, then fear. Why does Bridge have faint memories of the estate? Why did their father want them to be sequestered there together? And what is out there they feel pulling them into the dark heart of the woods? The Homecoming is at once a gripping mystery, a chilling exploration of how our memories can both define and betray us, and a riveting page-turner that will have you questioning your very existence.
  indie next march 2023: 3rd & Oak: Stories Maryka Biaggio, Kerry Cathers, Elyse Garrett, Sue Ann Higgens, Susan Kraus, Sally K Lehman, Trish MacEnulty, Katie Nelson Stone, Micah Thorp, Annie Tupek, Fuf Vollmayer, Sharon Woodard, 2024-09-24 How many stories can a single urban edifice inspire? The writers of the Novelitics Writers Collective found quite a few at the corner of 3rd & Oak. As it turns out, 3rd & Oak is the place to find hidden compartments from which to view the neighbors, demons who create graffiti and demons who spew grief, portal-traveling witches, stolen bags of gold, lost sisters, and maybe even the man who is trying to kill you. It’s the place to remember the love of your life, the girl who got away, the home you’ve always dreamed of, and Barry the Abominable Bozeman . . . but, for heaven’s sake, no union plumbers. Check out the array of stories one address can inspire in this delightful short story anthology.
  indie next march 2023: Digital Cash Finn Brunton, 2020-10-13 The fascinating untold story of digital cash and its creators—from experiments in the 1970s to the mania over Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies Bitcoin may appear to be a revolutionary form of digital cash without precedent or prehistory. In fact, it is only the best-known recent experiment in a long line of similar efforts going back to the 1970s. But the story behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and its blockchain technology has largely been untold—until now. In Digital Cash, Finn Brunton reveals how technological utopians and political radicals created experimental money to bring about their visions of the future: to protect privacy, bring down governments, prepare for apocalypse, or launch a civilization of innovation and abundance that would make its creators immortal. Filled with marvelous characters, stories, and ideas, Digital Cash is an engaging and accessible account of the strange origins and remarkable technologies behind today's cryptocurrency explosion.
  indie next march 2023: The Ghost Bride Yangsze Choo, 2013-08-06 Now a Netflix Mandarin original drama! From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Tiger, a Reese’s Book Club pick Yangsze Choo’s stunning debut, The Ghost Bride, is a startlingly original novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists. Li Lan, the daughter of a respectable Chinese family in colonial Malaysia, hopes for a favorable marriage, but her father has lost his fortune, and she has few suitors. Instead, the wealthy Lim family urges her to become a “ghost bride” for their son, who has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at what price? Night after night, Li Lan is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, where she must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family. Reminiscent of Lisa See’s Peony in Love and Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Ghost Bride is a wondrous coming-of-age story and from a remarkable new voice in fiction.
  indie next march 2023: Measuring Up Lily LaMotte, 2020-10-27 An ALA Top 10 Graphic Novel of 2021 · A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection · Fall 2020 Kids Indie Next List · Featured in Today Show’s AAPI Heritage Month List · Amazon Best Books November Selection · Cybils Awards Finalist · An NBC AAPI Selection · Featured in Parents Magazine Book Nook October issue · A CBC Hot off the Press October Selection · WA State Book Awards Finalist · Texas Library Association Little Maverick Selection For fans of American Born Chinese and Roller Girl, Measuring Up is a don't-miss graphic novel debut from Lily LaMotte and Ann Xu! “A beautiful story about food, family, and finding your place in the world.” —Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese and Dragon Hoops “A delicious and heartwarming exploration of identity by a young immigrant trying to find her place in multiple cultures.” —Remy Lai, author of Pie in the Sky and Fly on the Wall Twelve-year-old Cici has just moved from Taiwan to Seattle, and the only thing she wants more than to fit in at her new school is to celebrate her grandmother, A-má’s, seventieth birthday together. Since she can’t go to A-má, Cici cooks up a plan to bring A-má to her by winning the grand prize in a kids’ cooking contest to pay for A-má’s plane ticket! There’s just one problem: Cici only knows how to cook Taiwanese food. And after her pickled cucumber debacle at lunch, she’s determined to channel her inner Julia Child. Can Cici find a winning recipe to reunite with A-má, a way to fit in with her new friends, and somehow find herself too?
  indie next march 2023: Night Walk Sara O'Leary, 2020-09-29 A child explores her neighborhood on a late-night walk with her dad, finding delight and comfort in moments of quiet and the warm windows into other people’s lives. When a little girl can’t sleep one night, her dad asks if she’d like to go for a walk. They tiptoe through the silent house and step out into the dark. It’s strange and exciting to be out so late. Walking down the street, the girl can see inside the lit-up windows of apartment buildings and houses where people’s lives are unfolding. Kids are having a pillow fight in one house, while a family has gathered for a festive meal in another. She and her dad reach the still-busy shopping area, walking past restaurants and enticing store windows, then stop for a tranquil moment in the park before returning home. Sara O’Leary has captured a child’s nighttime wonder as she explores her neighborhood and comes to the comforting realization that she belongs. Ellie Arscott’s illustrations, luminous and rich in color, perfectly complement the story. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.6 Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
  indie next march 2023: Vera Carol Edgarian, 2021-03-02 New York Times bestselling author Carol Edgarian delivers “an all-encompassing and enthralling” (Oprah Daily) novel featuring an unforgettable heroine coming of age in the aftermath of catastrophe, and her quest for love and reinvention. Meet Vera Johnson, fifteen-year-old illegitimate daughter of Rose, notorious proprietor of San Francisco’s most legendary bordello. Vera has grown up straddling two worlds—the madam’s alluring sphere, replete with tickets to the opera, surly henchmen, and scant morality, and the quiet domestic life of the family paid to raise her. On the morning of the great quake, Vera’s worlds collide. As the city burns and looters vie with the injured, orphaned, and starving, Vera and her guileless sister, Pie, are cast adrift. Disregarding societal norms and prejudices, Vera begins to imagine a new kind of life. She collaborates with Tan, her former rival, and forges an unlikely family of survivors, navigating through the disaster together. “A character-driven novel about family, power, and loyalty, (San Francisco Chronicle), Vera brings to life legendary characters—tenor Enrico Caruso, indicted mayor Eugene Schmitz and boss Abe Ruef, tabloid celebrity Alma Spreckels. This “brilliantly conceived and beautifully realized” (Booklist, starred review) tale of improbable outcomes and alliances takes hold from the first page, with remarkable scenes of devastation, renewal, and joy. Vera celebrates the audacious fortitude of its young heroine, who discovers an unexpected strength in unprecedented times.
  indie next march 2023: New Animal Ella Baxter, 2022-02-15 * ABA Indie Next List pick for March 2022. * 2022 Best Young Australian Novelists awards, Winner. * Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, Shortlist. * A Best Book of 2022 —NYLON, Glamour, Refinery29 UK, Harpers BAZAAR UK * A Most Anticipated Book —Lit Hub, The Millions New Animal is a poignant, darkly comedic look at human connection from a biting and original new voice in Ella Baxter. Amelia Aurelia is approaching thirty and her closest relationships — other than her mother — are through her dating apps. She works at the family mortuary business as a cosmetic mortician with her eccentric step-father and older brother, whose throuple’s current preoccupation is with what type of snake to adopt. When Amelia’s affectionate mother passes away without warning, she is left without anchor. Fleeing the funeral, she seeks solace with her birth-father in Tasmania and stumbles into the local BDSM community, where her riotous attempts to belong are met with confusion, shock, and empathy. Hilarious and heartfelt, New Animal reveals hard-won truths as Amelia struggles to find her place in the world without her mother, with the help of her two well-intentioned fathers and adventures at the kink club.
  indie next march 2023: Daughters of Long Reach Irene M. Drago, 2017-09-15 Drawn to its rich maritime history, Ellie and Ty Malone purchase a grand home in Bath, Maine, and discover the story of a prominent shipbuilding family who lived there in the 1800s. Daughters of Long Reach explores love and loss through the lens of multiple families who are separated by time but connected by the rolling tides of the Kennebec River. Anna Malone, a modern-day daughter, arrives in Bath to heal and to begin to write again after losing her heart and her work to a charming, but duplicitous, filmmaker. Stella Rose leaves Bath in the 1940s to nurse wounded sailors, but she finds love in the middle of war and may never go home again. Thomas Goss, a sea captain at the turn of the 20th century, comes back to Bath to save his soul, but he almost loses it completely. Across three centuries, Long Reach ties hearts and souls together with a sailor's knot.
  indie next march 2023: The Witches of Willow Cove Josh Roberts, 2023-10-31 **Expanded Edition, including Author Q&A and a preview of book two in the series.** ...effectively spooky without being too scary. -School Library Journal (starred review) It's not easy being a teenage witch. Seventh grader Abby Shepherd is just getting the hang of it when weird stuff starts happening all around her hometown of Willow Cove. Green slime bubbling to life in science class. Giant snakes slithering around the middle school gym. Her best friend suddenly keeping secrets and telling lies. Things only begin to make sense when a stranger named Miss Winters reveals that Abby isn't the only young witch in town-and that Willow Cove is home to a secret past that connects them all. Miss Winters, herself a witch, even offers to teach Abby and the others everything she knows about witchcraft. But as Abby learns more about Miss Winters' past, she begins to suspect her new mentor is keeping secrets of her own. Can Abby trust her, or does Miss Winters have something wicked planned for the young witches of Willow Cove?
  indie next march 2023: Turn Right at Machu Picchu Mark Adams, 2011-06-30 THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING TRAVEL MEMOIR What happens when an unadventurous adventure writer tries to re-create the original expedition to Machu Picchu? In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and “discovered” Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain who stole both priceless artifacts and credit for finding the great archeological site, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer’s perilous path in search of the truth—except he’d written about adventure far more than he’d actually lived it. In fact, he’d never even slept in a tent. Turn Right at Machu Picchu is Adams’ fascinating and funny account of his journey through some of the world’s most majestic, historic, and remote landscapes guided only by a hard-as-nails Australian survivalist and one nagging question: Just what was Machu Picchu?
  indie next march 2023: How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method Randy Ingermanson, 2014-07-18 The Snowflake Method-ten battle-tested steps that jump-start your creativity and help you quickly map out your story.
  indie next march 2023: Writers & Lovers Lily King, 2020-03-03 An extraordinary new novel of art, love and ambition from Lily King, the New York Times–bestselling author of Euphoria, which sold over 400,000 copies in North America. Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman. Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, mouldy room at the side of a garage, where she works on the novel she’s been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching on to something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink. Writers & Lovers follows Casey—a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist—in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis.Written with King’s trademark humour, heart and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
  indie next march 2023: A Whale of the Wild Rosanne Parry, 2020-09-01 “A spellbinding, heart-stopping adventure.” —Booklist (starred review) “A dreamily written, slyly educational, rousing maritime adventure.” —New York Times Book Review In the stand-alone companion to the New York Times–bestselling A Wolf Called Wander, a young orca whale must lead her brother on a tumultuous journey to be reunited with their pod. This gorgeously illustrated animal adventure novel explores family bonds, survival, global warming, and a changing seascape. Includes information about orcas and their habitats. For Vega and her family, salmon is life. And Vega is learning to be a salmon finder, preparing for the day when she will be her family’s matriarch. But then she and her brother Deneb are separated from their pod when a devastating earthquake and tsunami render the seascape unrecognizable. Vega must use every skill she has to lead her brother back to their family. The young orcas face a shark attack, hunger, the deep ocean, and polluted waters on their journey. Will Vega become the leader she’s destined to be? A Whale of the Wild weaves a heart-stopping tale of survival with impeccable research on a delicate ecosystem and threats to marine life. New York Times-bestselling author Rosanne Parry’s fluid writing and Lindsay Moore’s stunning artwork bring the Salish Sea and its inhabitants to vivid life. An excellent read-aloud and read-alone, this companion to A Wolf Called Wander will captivate fans of The One and Only Ivan and Pax. Includes black-and-white illustrations throughout, a map, and extensive backmatter about orcas and their habitats.