Welcome back, y’all!
I love doing these recommendation posts for you. The Bitchery seems to enjoy them, but I also get to hear about all the books you’ve been recommending to people and some good ones you’ve picked up for yourself.
Here are a few I’ve recommended recently or that I often go-to for specific reading requests!
As always, sound out below with recommendations of your own!
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The Address Book
If you love niche history or diving into a very specific topic and its historical context, I cannot recommend this one enough.
An extraordinary debut in the tradition of classic works from authors such as Mark Kurlansky, Mary Roach, and Rose George.
An exuberant and insightful work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity.
When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class. In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we also see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata and on the streets of London. Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t—and why.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Address Book by Deirdre Mask
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Malice
A dark sapphic fairy tale retelling with a bit of villain origin story thrown in. This is the first book in a duology and the follow up is out later this year.
A princess isn’t supposed to fall for an evil sorceress. But in this darkly magical retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” true love is more than a simple fairy tale.
Once upon a time, there was a wicked fairy who, in an act of vengeance, cursed a line of princesses to die. A curse that could only be broken by true love’s kiss.
You’ve heard this before, haven’t you? The handsome prince. The happily-ever-after.
Utter nonsense.
Let me tell you, no one in Briar actually cares about what happens to its princesses. Not the way they care about their jewels and elaborate parties and charm-granting elixirs. I thought I didn’t care, either.
Until I met her.
Princess Aurora. The last heir to Briar’s throne. Kind. Gracious. The future queen her realm needs. One who isn’t bothered that I am Alyce, the Dark Grace, abhorred and feared for the mysterious dark magic that runs in my veins. Humiliated and shamed by the same nobles who pay me to bottle hexes and then brand me a monster. Aurora says I should be proud of my gifts. That she . . . cares for me. Even though it was a power like mine that was responsible for her curse.
But with less than a year until that curse will kill her, any future I might see with Aurora is swiftly disintegrating—and she can’t stand to kiss yet another insipid prince. I want to help her. If my power began her curse, perhaps it’s what can lift it. Perhaps, together, we could forge a new world.
Nonsense again.
Because we all know how this story ends, don’t we? Aurora is the beautiful princess. And I—
I am the villain.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Malice by Heather Walter
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Voices
One of my go-to recommendations for readers who love a different storytelling style or want more novels in verse.
Bestselling author David Elliott explores how Joan of Arc changed the course of history and remains a figure of fascination centuries after her extraordinary life and death. Joan of Arc gets the Hamilton treatment in this evocative novel.
Told through medieval poetic forms and in the voices of the people and objects in Joan of Arc’s life, (including her family and even the trees, clothes, cows, and candles of her childhood), Voices offers an unforgettable perspective on an extraordinary young woman. Along the way it explores timely issues such as gender, misogyny, and the peril of speaking truth to power. Before Joan of Arc became a saint, she was a girl inspired. It is that girl we come to know in Voices.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Voices by David Elliott
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Zabar’s
For all you foodies out there! This is mostly food writing mixed with memoir and some recipes thrown in.
The fascinating, mouthwatering story (with recipes!) of the immigrant family that created a New York gastronomic legend: “The most rambunctious and chaotic of all delicatessens, with one foot in the Old World and the other in the vanguard of every fast-breaking food move in the city.” –Nora Ephron
When Louis and Lilly Zabar rented a counter in a dairy store on 80th Street and Broadway in 1934 to sell smoked fish, they could not have imagined that five decades later their store would occupy half a city block and become a beloved, world-renowned mecca for quality food of all kinds. A passion for perfection, a keen business sense, cutthroat competitive instincts, and devotion to their customers led four generations of Zabars to create the Upper West Side shrine to the cheese, fish, meat, produce, baked goods, and prepared products that heralded the 20th-century revolution in food production and
consumption.Lori Zabar–Louis’s granddaughter–begins with her grandfather’s escape from Ukraine in 1921, following a pogrom in which his father, a sister, and an uncle were killed, and his (illegal!) entry into the United States from Canada. She describes Zabar’s gradual expansion, Louis’s untimely death in 1950, and the passing of the torch to Saul, Stanley, and partner Murray Klein, who raised competitive pricing to an art form and added top-tier houseware and appliances to Zabar’s shelves. She paints a delectable portrait of Zabar’s as it is today–the intoxicating aromas, the crowds, the devoted staff–and shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes of the long-time employees, family members, eccentric customers, and celebrity fans who have created a uniquely American institution that honors its immigrant roots, revels in its New York history, and is relentless in its devotion to the art and science of selling gourmet food.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Zabar’s by Lori Zabar
Zabar’s sounds fascinating. I didn’t know the family is from Ukraine. I wish my library had a print copy, for the recipes, but I’ve joined the queue for the ebook.
THE ADDRESS BOOK. Wow. It’s like you know me, Amanda. Another wonderful rabbit hole of discovery to dive into! And after that, MALICE. Thank you!
I have a rec! I recently finished True Biz by Sara Novic. It’s a coming of age story coupled with a story of finding identity in middle age, and set at a public school for the deaf. The author is deaf and intersperses the narrative with lessons in ASL and deaf history from the perspective of our teen protagonist as she’s learning as well.
I learned so much about deaf culture and the complicated family dynamics around cochlear implants and how they impact the community as a whole. It really gave those TikTok videos of “my baby hearing my voice for the first time” after implants a different perspective for me. I can’t recommend it enough.
THE ADDRESS BOOK sounds so interesting. I love books that illuminate the history of some aspect of everyday life that we just take for granted. The part of the blurb that mentions the fate of streets named for MLK reminded me of a line in an early episode of the Simpsons: the family gets stranded and Homer looks up at the street names yells, “Oh no—we must be in the worst part of town! We’re at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez Boulevards.” There’s so much to unpack in that “joke”.
These all sound great. I am 3/4s through LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus and it is the “I can’t burn it down right now, but I can make everyone really uncomfortable” story I needed. It’s the 1950s-60s where a brilliant chemist is fighting every obstacle in her path, and they are legion. Also very funny and oh-so-pointed to today.