Megan's Staff Picks
By Underground Books
By Underground Books
Mooncakes Collector's Edition
Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu
$24.99 $23.24Mooncakes is a lovely book to have in your back pocket for days that could use a little extra magic and a dash of self-care! Teen witch Nova works for her grandmothers at their magic rare bookshop. One night, she finds her childhood crush, the non-binary werewolf Tam, has returned to town pursued by magical forces.
Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World
Pádraig Ó. Tuama
$27.95 $25.99This is my favorite way to experience poetry—in the company of a deeply kind, wise-hearted, warmly funny, poetry-loving friend like Pádraig Ó Tuama who here introduces each specially selected poem, mostly by poets writing today, allows it to blow your mind and break your heart, and then walks you through what makes it so special. This is a true gift for poetry lovers and the perfect introduction to poetry for anyone looking for a way in!
When the Angels Left the Old Country
Sacha Lamb
$19.99 $18.59Fans of Good Omens’ Aziraphale and Crowley will find so much to love about another angel-demon odd couple, Uriel and Little Ash! Warm-hearted, whimsical, and wise, this queer, Jewish historical fantasy follows these two unlikely partners in pursuit of performing a mitzvah for a lost girl from their tiny shtetl in the Old Country all the way to Ellis Island and a Lower East Side full of immigrants, strikers, radicals, and many newfound friends!
A Fragile Enchantment
Allison Saft
$20.00 $18.60Out 1/30/24 | If Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was a YA book, it would be this fantasy of manners and its aching, forbidden romance between a magical dressmaker from a former colony, hired for the royal wedding, and the king's wayward, plant-magic-wielding second son, a.k.a. the groom. Together, Niamh, soft as velvet, and Kit, prickly as a briar patch, risk not only scandal, but war, ruin, uprising, and the loss of all the armor and thorns both have used to protect themselves from life and love ‘til now.
When Grumpy Met Sunshine
Charlotte Stein
$18.00 $16.74Out 2/6/24 | A curvy, bubbly ghostwriter finds herself in a fake dating scheme with a hard, grumpy footballer a la Ted Lasso’s Roy Kent in this rom-com about being yourself and embracing your softness that’s as HOT as it is hilarious! Highly recommended for fans of grumpy/sunshine pairs, Cinderella/celebrity romances, when it’s painfully obvious they’re head over cleats in LOVE but they’re total utter numpties/silly gooses about it, and absolutely FILTHY dirty talk.
Starling House
Alix E. Harrow
$28.99 $26.96Out 10/3 | The heroine of this ghoulish Southern gothic is street-smart and down-on-her-luck, with a heart of gold and sharp, crooked teeth, who finds herself drawn to the doors of a sentient, shape-shifting old mansion—and the bitter, battleworn boy trapped behind its gates. Starling House is an ode to found family, the monsters that save us and plague us, and the courage to exorcise the ghosts of a town with a long, dark history that doesn’t love you back.
Godkiller
Hannah Kaner
$18.99 $17.66Out 9/12 | In a land where gods have been outlawed, godkiller for hire Kissen, whose own family was sacrificed to a fire god, is forced to help when a young noble girl fused with the god of white lies seeks her help. Together with a loyal knight turned baker they must journey to a wartorn and god-haunted city for answers and aid. This immersive fantasy is filled with flawed, lovable, badass characters—and the audiobook narrator sounds like Ygritte from Game of Thrones!
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
Andrew Joseph White
$19.99 $18.59Out 9/5 | One thing about Andrew Joseph White books—they are not for the faint of heart and they turn me ABSOLUTELY FERAL. The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is White at the height of his visceral, shocking, beautiful, monstrous, tender, transgressive powers. I could not stop reading—though I did occasionally have to put the book down to audibly gasp and/or allow my stomach to resettle. One of the best books of the year, hands (scalpel-wielding and bloody) down. In an alt-Victorian England, violet-eyed girls born with the forbidden ability to open the Veil are prized for their potential to birth male mediums—but despite appearances, Silas is a boy—trans, autistic, and an aspiring surgeon, not an obedient wife for a Speaker. Sent to an asylum to “fix” him, Silas encounters mutilated ghosts, disappearing girls, unexpected allies, and stomach-churning horrors inspired by the truly haunting history of medical experimentation and the inspiring true story of a successful trans surgeon of the Victorian era. **Check content warnings for this one!**
Divine Rivals
Rebecca Ross
$18.99 $17.66The center of this quietly fraught and achingly earnest story is a love affair in letters, sent between magical typewriters by two ambitious rivals for the same newspaper position. I’ve heard it described as You’ve Got Mail meets Dramione, and while I definitely enjoyed both aspects, Iris and Roman truly have a love of their own, and I was rather dreamily swept away by this magical realist tale set amidst a WWI-reminiscent war between two gods.
The Free People's Village
Sim Kern
$26.99 $25.10Out 9/12 | Penned by #TransRightsReadathon founder Sim Kern! In an alternate 2020, in which Al Gore once won the presidency and Democrats have held court for 20 years…we still live in an economically and racially unjust, imperialist, carceral state (now with more greenwashing!), and teacher and punk band guitarist Maddie Ryan finds herself and her community forever changed when she stands against the building of a new hyperway through the Black 8th Ward she’s inadvertently helped gentrify and gets swept up in a revolution. Achingly real, bitterly funny, and deeply moving, The Free People’s Village is a commentary, both compassionate and cutting, on the woke white activist’s journey and, above all, a full-throated ode to resistance and the found family that fuels it.
Slow AF Run Club: The Ultimate Guide for Anyone Who Wants to Run
Martinus Evans
$18.00 $16.74Listen, I don’t want an Olympian (superhuman god or medal winner) to tell me how to run, I’d rather learn at the heels of marathoner Martinus Evans aka Instagram’s @ 300poundsandrunning. This guide is a gift to all “beginner, nontraditional, slow, fat” runners—warm, funny, welcoming, accessible, and easy to follow, with practical advice and hard-earned wisdom on everything from intervals to gear to race day to joining a running club and more!
Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity
Leah Myers
$25.95 $24.13The author of this thoughtfully crafted memoir about Indigenous identity, blood quantum laws, and cultural survival grew up here in Carrollton. Through a totem pole bearing symbols of the matriarchs in her line—bear, salmon, hummingbird, raven—and evocative retellings of Native folklore, Myers sifts through the forces that have led to her being the last of her family to qualify for membership in the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe of Washington state.
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Christopher McDougall
$17.00 $15.81This pasty nerd never thought she’d be hanging on to every word about long distance running! That’s how riveting, joyful, meaningful, and fun this book about racing, community, physiology, prehistory, and, greatest runners in the world, the indigenous Tarahumara, is. A modern classic published 15 years ago, the science here may be dated (including fatphobia), but it remains an important, beloved book sure to have you running out the door, Nikes or no!
Some Desperate Glory
Emily Tesh
$28.99 $26.96An exhilarating, edge-of-your-seat ride, a tender and triumphantly queer journey, and a groundbreaking masterwork of science fiction about fascism, deradicalization, war and peace…Some Desperate Glory is destined for not only the highest heights of Best Of lists and award nominations (or there is no justice in this reality or any other!), but fierce love from fans and frenzied recommendations from readers like this one.
To Shape a Dragon's Breath: The First Book of Nampeshiweisit
Moniquill Blackgoose
$18.00 $16.74This fantastically imagined alt-historical fantasy is full of fierce and lovable dragons, with a steampunk academia setting, a wise and courageous young indigenous woman at the helm, queer and neurodivergent rep, and so much to say about colonialism, knowledge, story-telling, and resistance! Fans of R. F. Kuang’s Babel and Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina, you simply must read this immersive, inventive, and powerfully truth-telling debut novel next.
Untethered Sky
Fonda Lee
$22.99 $21.38H Is for Hawk meets Middle Eastern mythology in this quietly fierce, beautifully wrought novella that will hold your heart in its talons. Since childhood, Ester has had a single focus—join the royal rukhers, hunting with rocs, giant, deadly birds of prey capable of killing manticores, the beasts who slayed her family…but the relationship she forges with her roc Zahra and her fellow rukhers will fly Ester far beyond the vengeance she’s dreamed of.
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking
T. Kingfisher
$14.95I love T. Kingfisher’s comically dark, oddly cozy fantasies, and A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking gets the recipe just right. Mona is a 14-year-old bread witch with a sourdough starter familiar—and she’d be just fine making gingerbread men dance at her aunt’s bakery if she hadn’t just found a dead body and gotten all mixed up in a wizard-killing plot that endangers her entire city. A wonderful fairy tale about how powerful your gifts are, no matter their shape or size, especially when you break the mold! Highly recommended for fans of Kiki’s Delivery Service, Legends & Lattes, and The Princess Bride!
Hell Followed with Us
Andrew Joseph White
$12.99 $12.08Religious trauma, trans rage, and teen romance await in this tender and gruesome horror novel. In a disturbing near-future, with the help of a band of young queer survivors, transboy Benji escapes the eco-Christo-fascist cult that raised him (and brought about the apocalypse), but not before being injected with a bioweapon that will transform him—but hey, if they make you into a monster, you might as well unleash yourself.
Sunshine: A Graphic Novel
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
$27.99 $26.03This powerful, tender, life-affirming graphic memoir from the author of Hey, Kiddo follows Jarrett J. Krosoczka as a high schooler on a trip volunteering at Camp Sunshine, a summer camp for seriously ill kids and their families, a week that changes his life forever. I’m getting chills just reflecting on this beautiful book and that it’s here for anyone who needs a reminder of the brevity of life, yes, but more, that its meaning lies in connection.
Mortal Follies
Alexis Hall
$18.00 $16.74To survive a mysterious and malicious curse and find the figure behind it, a young noblewoman must encounter mischievous fairies, queer priestesses, ancient deities—and a strangely alluring, potentially “malign witch” (who may have murdered her own male relations to inherit her dukedom) in this feverishly fun sapphic fantasy wittily and wantonly narrated, of course, by Puck himself. Such fun!
Love, Theoretically
Ali Hazelwood
$17.00 $15.81Elsie’s pathological people pleasing, how her mentor’s ARCH ENEMY sees right through it, the academic feuding (inspired by a true story), her hilarious inner monologue, his YEARNING, the diabetes and ace and demisexuality rep, can we hear it. FOR. THE. STEAM., THE STEAM, PEOPLE! I couldn’t put it down. This is my favorite Ali Hazelwood yet!
The Deep Sky
Yume Kitasei
$29.99 $27.89On a mission to colonize a distant planet, funded by a billionaire who trained them from adolescence, a lethal explosion rocks not only their spaceship but the crew’s faith in each other. This promising debut is part space thriller, part character study of a Japanese-American girl struggling with belonging and self-worth. There are some pacing issues, but I loved the world-building across timelines and would have followed this crew indefinitely!
Thornhedge
T. Kingfisher
$19.99 $18.59Out 8/15 | A both sweetly and bitterly enchanting spin on Sleeping Beauty, this story of a gentle toad fairy and the horror she keeps locked in a tower is not one you’ve heard before! T. Kingfisher’s world-building is immersive—she’s capable of building entire castles out of just the echoes of timeworn tales. I highly recommend Thornhedge for fans of Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series and Alix Harrow’s Fractured Fables series!
A Study in Drowning
Ava Reid
$19.99 $18.59Out 9/13 | What’s more dangerous—a sinking mansion full of secrets, a vicious and enthralling Fairy King, or the forces that have historically silenced and subjugated young women in academia? Fans of Mexican Gothic and The Hazel Wood, this Welsh folklore-infused dark academia fantasy will sweep you under and leave you drowning in all its lush and eerie, mysterious and romantic, utterly immersive, gothic splendor.
Bookshops & Bonedust
Travis Baldree
$17.99 $16.73Out 11/7: This prequel to Legends & Lattes is so DELICIOUSLY COZY that it CURED my common cold—or at the very least it warmed me all the way up, gave me a kiss on the forehead, and made me feel a whole lot better! Wounded in her first venture as a mercenary, a young Viv washes up in a seaside town with a ramshackle bookshop and ends up finding fiction, friendship, first love, the mutually enriching relationship between small businesses and their community, and a little badass bone-busting adventure along the way! It’s hard to believe, but I loved Bookshops & Bonedust even more than Legends & Lattes and literally hugged this book when I finished it.
