It’s May and a bunch of great book clubs have selected their picks for the month! Whether you’re curious what everyone is reading, looking for your next solo or buddy read, or looking to join a book club—as little or as much as you’d like—this is a great selection of books. All the book clubs are different from each other, but all offer a virtual component while some meet in person, and many times, there is author interaction.
So what do we have this month? There’s a literary dystopian centering books, a graphic novel with a boy using fairy tales to figure out life, Beyoncé’s mom’s memoir, a novel with a comp to Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, a novel about redemption, a blockbuster author’s recent novel, a YA fantasy series opener, a classic mystery with an adaptation starring Denzel Washington and more!
The Stacks Book Club
Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
About the book club: The Stacks is a podcast that chats all about books, and there’s a monthly book club. The book chosen for the month is discussed on the podcast in the last week of the month with a selected special guest.
What The Stacks Book Club said about the book: “We’re diving into the world of crime fiction in May by reading Walter Mosley’s debut novel, Devil in a Blue Dress. Written in 1990, this mystery is the first in the award-winning Easy Rawlins series. It follows Rawlins, as he is tasked with finding a missing blonde woman with a penchant for frequenting Black jazz clubs in 1940’s Los Angeles. The book is not only a masterclass on mystery and suspense, but also on social commentary; which is why it was named one of “The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time” by Time Magazine.
If you want to read with us this month, here are some key dates to The Stacks Book Club read of Devil in a Blue Dress.
May 7 — The Stacks Episode announcing our guest for the Devil in a Blue Dress episode.
May 28th — The Stacks Book Club episode of Devil in a Blue Dress.
June 3rd — The Stacks Virtual Book Club meetup to discuss the book. To participate you will need to join The Stacks Pack on Patreon. There, you’ll have inside access to the show, access to the Discord community, and more.”
Follow The Stacks on social media: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
The following comes to you from the Editorial Desk.
This week, we’re highlighting a post that offers you a guide to all things cozy genre books! Get to know some outstanding cozy mysteries, cozy horror, and a whole lot more. Read on for an excerpt and become an All Access member to unlock the full post.
A Guide to All the Cozy Genres
Cozy has certainly become a buzzword attached to genre fiction. It all started with cozy mysteries, which have been around for decades. Now we’re seeing cozy science fiction and fantasy, and even cozy horror. So what exactly does “cozy” mean?
There are some common traits of so-called cozy books. Generally, they evoke a charming atmosphere with their setting. In cozy mysteries, this is often a small town—think of a quaint village in the English countryside. Fantasy adds some magic to that quaint village; horror adds ghosts. For science fiction, coziness often manifests as a ship, space station, or colony with a tight-knit crew. Readers can expect rich descriptions of the setting and a lot of atmosphere for a fully transporting reading experience.
Another common factor in these books is the stakes of the story. Cozy mysteries are somewhat confounding because the crimes they solve are typically murders! Nevertheless, the reader is not subjected to gory details or put in a position of extreme suspense. Likewise, cozy fantasy and sci-fi novels may deal with the aftermath of a large-scale conflict, but the characters are likely to be dealing with smaller, more internal or interpersonal challenges.
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English (US) · 