Sunshine and warmer weather are here, and that means it’s the perfect time to head outside, kick back your feet, and read a good book. There are plenty of new releases in fiction to be excited about. Here are some of the new releases I am most eager to read this summer from some popular genres of fiction. Fantasy – Witch King by Martha Wells Release date: May 30, 2023 From the breakout SFF superstar author of Murderbot comes a remarkable story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose. Kai’s having a long day in Martha Wells’ Witch King…. After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well. But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence? Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions. He’s not going to like the answers. Witch King is Martha Wells’s first new fantasy in over a decade, drawing together her signature ability to create characters we adore and identify with, alongside breathtaking action and adventure, and the wit and charm we’ve come…

According to a recent survey, 62% of women would rather spend Friday night reading a good book than out on a date, and the similarities between how people talk about both reading and dating is fascinating. Given these similarities, and with the success of popular dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, Match, Grindr, and eHarmony, Brant Menswar and Jim Knight, the founders of digital book marketing company BookstarPR, decided to revolutionize the world of book discovery with the new app Booky Call. “Booky Call is an innovative book discovery platform cleverly disguised as a dating app. By combining the proven psychology of dating apps with the innovative approach of giving books a humanized dating profile, we have created a book discovery platform that helps readers engage with books in a completely new way,” the Booky Call website states. Booky Call uses the same technology as popular dating apps to match its users with potential book “dates.” When first setting up the app, users answer questions about their preferences in different genres and categories. Then, much like the technology used on Tinder, users can swipe right or left on each book profile, indicating their interest or disinterest in each book, and the more you swipe, the better Boo, the app’s matchmaker, learns your interests and tastes. On the app, each book gets a humanized dating profile with a unique bio and first-person perspective answers to nine questions that come directly from dating profiles, such as “Who should swipe right on me?”, “What…

Memoir allows readers a glimpse into the lives of others, the struggles they’ve gone through, the lessons they’ve learned, showing the width and breadth of the human experience. And with the added visual element, graphic memoir brings another dimension to the story and pulls the reader into the setting without the need for prose description, visually transporting readers to lands and perspectives different from their own. The prose lays out the storyline, and the illustration provides the details, allowing for a different kind of comprehension. Memoir feels especially suited to the graphic novel format. These are the stories of real people unfolding before your eyes. The visuals help with understanding differences, but they can also make similarities more striking too. Maybe you’ll learn something new; maybe you’ll find a bit of yourself in the story. Each reading experience is important and powerful. No matter your age or experience, graphic memoirs are accessible and valuable for all. Interested in trying graphic memoir? Showcasing a variety of different art styles, here are some more recent releases I recommend. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark A Vagrant fame, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. After university, Beaton heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush, part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful…