Summertime and the livin’ is … literary.
If you’re a book lover looking to get your hands on some indie lit to lounge by the pool with, we’ve got you covered. Earlier this year, Small Press Distribution abruptly closed after a 55-year run, a move that jolted the literary community awake: Small presses need reader support.
We took the wake-up call seriously and compiled a list of the latest and forthcoming titles we’re most excited about. Hitting bookshop shelves this summer are clandestine tales of wife-swapping gone awry, a Korean American reimagining of Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” a Soviet-Afghan war veteran’s descent into violent madness, and a hopeless cast of Angelenos looking for love in the wrong places — all from Southern California small presses and L.A. indie authors.
Check out the full list below:
“American Narcissus” by Chandler Morrison his shelves on May 14. (Dead Sky Publishing)
“American Narcissus” by Chandler Morrison
Publication Date: May 14 (Dead Sky Publishing)
Baxter Kent is a surfer with a porn addiction that’s made it impossible for him to be intimate with “real girls,” so he turns to a sex robot. Arden Coover just graduated from Berkeley with a philosophy degree but would rather hole up in his parent’s pool house and do acid while he peruses dating apps. His 18-year-old sister, Tess, is entangled with a narcissistic novelist who wants to make her his fourth wife (the first three were too predictable). Ryland Richter is a booze and drug-addled insurance executive who’s sleeping with his new employee, an unstable claims adjustment agent who keeps threatening to ruin his life in myriad ways. In “American Narcissus,” the American dream is dead, Los Angeles is on fire, and this motley crew of characters can’t help but search for love in all the wrong places.
Morrison and I will discuss “American Narcissus” at Permanent Records Roadhouse in Los Angeles on June 8 at 2:00 p.m. RSVP here.
“The Future Was Color” by Patrick Nathan was released on June 4. (Counterpoint)
“The Future Was Color” by Patrick Nathan
Publication Date: June 4, 2024 (Counterpoint)
It’s 1950s Los Angeles, and George Curtis, a gay Hungarian-born Jewish man, is writing B-list monster movies. His true passion is political writing, so when a wealthy socialite offers George the chance to become the writer in residence at her glamorous Malibu mansion, he jumps at the chance to leave the studio behind. Soon, he’s shrouded in postwar decadence and sipping cocktails near the pool, but the people who’ve pulled him into their circle and the country where he’s emigrated to aren’t as they initially seem. Nathan’s L.A. noir novel spans decades and countries and delves into the power of art, self-reinvention, and the tether between the personal and the political.
“The Sisters K” by Maureen Sun will arrive in bookstores and online June 11. (Unnamed Press)
“The Sisters K” by Maureen Sun
Publication Date: June 11 (Unnamed Press)
Maureen Sun’s debut novel “The Sisters K” is a modern reimagining of Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” which follows three estranged Korean American sisters raised in Los Angeles. Brought together again by the looming death of their cruel and conniving father, sisters Minah, Sarah, and Esther confront their past and present, and the potential fortune at their fingertips from conflicting viewpoints. The starred Kirkus review calls “The Sisters K” a book that does “far more than retell a classic tale: it constructs a whole new vocabulary to discuss the most central of human conundrums: how to love and be loved in return.”
Sun was born in Los Angeles and will be returning for one of her two events with Katya Apekina at North Figueroa Bookshop in Highland Park at 7 p.m. June 5.
“Russian Gothic” by Aleksandr Skorobogatov, translated by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse hits shelves June 11. (Rare Bird Books)
“Russian Gothic” by Aleksandr Skorobogatov and translated by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse
Publication Date: June 11 (Rare Bird Books)
Nikolai, an unemployed veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war, begins his descent into madness when the elusive Sergeant Bertrand swings open his front door and kisses the hand of his wife Vera. Or maybe he just rang the doorbell and whispered sweet nothings into her ear. Nikolai isn’t sure how Sergeant Bertrand came into his life, he isn’t sure of much. But Sergeant Bertrand’s presence becomes increasingly intrusive, with violent consequences for Vera and the people in her orbit. “Russian Gothic” examines the devastating toll of PTSD, toxic jealousy, grief and misogyny. Aleksandr Skorobogatov is the author of five acclaimed novels but “Russian Gothic,” originally published in Europe in 1991, is the first of his books to be translated into English. It’s been hailed as a masterpiece of post-Soviet literature.
“A Punishing Breed” by DC Frost hits bookshop shelves on June 11, 2024. (Red Hen Press)
“A Punishing Breed” by DC Frost
Publication Date: June 11, 2024 (Red Hen Press)
“A Punishing Breed” is novelist DC Frost’s mystery debut and the first in a series that follows Detective DJ Arias, a jaded but shrewd investigator who tends to see the worst in people. When Danny Mendoza calls in a murder that happens at the liberal arts college where he works, it’s Detective Arias who’s assigned to the case, the same cop who locked up Mendoza a decade prior. At a campus that hides behind a facade of progressive curriculum, Detective Arias begins to uncover seething jealousy, racial and sexual tension, and a hierarchy that buries dark secrets. He must confront his own biases and dwindling humanity to crack the case and stop the murderer before they strike again.
Frost will be in conversation with Saul Gonzalez at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena on June 25 at 7 p.m.
“Reap the Whirlwind: Violence, Race, Justice and the True Story of Sagon Penn” by Peter Houlahan will hit shelves on July 23 (Counterpoint)
“Reap the Whirlwind: Violence, Race, Justice and the True Story of Sagon Penn” by Peter Houlahan
Publication Date: July 23 (Counterpoint)
On March 31, 1985, Sagon Penn applied to be an officer for the San Diego Police Department and was scheduled to take the written exam the following week. But just hours later, the young Black man was pulled over by two patrol police officers and things went horribly awry. The traffic stop escalated and Penn seized one of the officer’s guns, shooting both (killing one) and shooting a woman who was on a ride-along in one of the police cars. After two sensationalized trials, with the help of a fearless defense attorney, Penn was found not guilty on all charges. “Reap the Whirlwind,” written by “Norco ’80” author Peter Houlahan, examines the long-fraught relationship between Black communities and the police and interrogates the question, what, if anything, could justify Penn’s actions?
“Blue Graffiti” by Calahan Skogman hits bookstores on Aug. 13. (Unnamed Press)
“Blue Graffiti” by Calahan Skogman
Publication Date: August 13 (Unnamed Press)
Cash is a handyman and sometimes painter living in middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin. He inherited his childhood home from his dead mother, was abandoned by his bereft father, and he’s never known anything outside of the small town where he lives, and the friends who fill the barstools beside him. Cash spends most of his time reminiscing about the past or dreaming up big plans for the future, but one night, his world is upended when an emerald-eyed beauty strolls into the town bar. Cash falls head over heels in love but first, he must confront the ghosts of his past before he can build a new future. Kirkus called Skogman’s poetic debut “a love letter to bar-stool philosophizing and a tender portrait of small-town life with a simple but powerful message: There’s always something special about home.”
Skogman will be in conversation with Leigh Bardugo at an event hosted by Skylight Books at Barnsdall Theater on August 29.
“Watching Over You” by Simon Delaney comes out on Aug. 13. (Rare Bird Books)
“Watching Over You” by Simon Delaney
Publication Date: August 13 (Rare Bird Books)
Alternating between London and Paris in the 1940s, the 1960s, and the present, “Watching Over You” follows restaurateur Michel de la Rue and his brother, Chef Antoine as they take a foodie tour of France (which is being filmed by a documentary TV crew). Throw in a scheming art dealer, Alain Deschamps, and his pursuers, Interpol’s Lorenzo Pieters and the Le Monde journalist, Fabian Ritzier, and you have a page-turning story of Michel desperate to protect his family’s precious heirloom – paintings hidden from the plundering Nazis during World War II – and Alain’s ruthless search for the missing paintings.
“Post-Apocalyptic Valentine” by Linda Watanabe McFerrin will be released on Sept. 3 (7.13 Books)
“Post-Apocalyptic Valentine” by Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Publication Date: September 3 (7.13 Books)
Award-winning novelist and travel writer Linda Watanabe McFerrin’s new poetry collection examines depression, humor, and dark revelation. McFerrin’s poetry explores history as well as the modern challenges of individuals living in a flawed society on a doomed planet. While McFerrin’s collection reaches as far as the galaxy in search of understanding, she narrows in on the minutia of day-to-day life to interrogate what it means to love.
“Olive Days” by Jessica Elisheva Emerson will be released on Sept. 10. (Counterpoint)
“Olive Days” by Jessica Elisheva Emerson
Publication Date: September 10 (Counterpoint)
Jessica Elisheva Emerson’s debut novel follows Rina Kirsh, a modern orthodox Jew living in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles. She’s an exhausted young mom and a closet atheist, and her husband insists that a night of wife-swapping with a few other couples will bring a spark back to their marriage. When Rina caves, it’s not her marriage that’s reinvigorated, but her passion for painting which leads her down a rabbit hole of lust, secrets and angst when she becomes entangled with her married Mexican American art teacher, Will Ochoa.
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