New Day Rising
With 2015’s An Ember in the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir launched a YA fantasy tetralogy whose first three novels have sold more than 405K print copies. The series concludes with A Sky Beyond the Storm, #9 in children’s frontlist fiction, which, like the other installments, addresses weighty subjects, such as the way a benign regime can turn authoritarian, seemingly overnight. In a prepub interview with PW, the author explained that while her books do not shy away from depicting the horrors of war, hope “is a driving force” of the series, especially in its final installment. “I heard a lot from readers about how in the past four years, and particularly since the pandemic began, they struggled to find hope,” Tahir said. “So I tried to explore that theme in the book.” Her virtual tour included a December 7 conversation with author Tochi Onyebuchi (Riot Baby), hosted by Politics & Prose and moderated by Everdeen Mason of the Washington Post.
Outdoor Voice
The MeatEater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival by Steven Rinella debuts at the top of our trade paperback list. Rinella, an outdoorsman and conservationist, stars in the nonfiction Netflix series MeatEater, which he launched on the Sportsman Channel in 2012. In his new book, he acknowledges the dangers inherent in the pastimes he encourages, explaining that “when you are educated and prepared for risk, coping with it is easy. At times it can even be enjoyable.” Sales out of the gate suggest that readers are eager to learn more.
In Clubland
December’s book club picks include a pair of first novels on our trade paperback list.
A #9, The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell’Antonia, former New York Times Motherlode editor, is the latest Reese’s Book Club selection. The story centers on a pair of sisters and a longstanding rivalry between two chicken shacks in their Kansas hometown.
Good Morning America Book Club chose #14, This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens, in which two people born in the same hospital on the same New Year’s Day continue to cross paths into adulthood. “The romance is slow to sizzle,” our review said, “but Cousens’s debut is ripe with both emotional vulnerability and zaniness.”
NEW & NOTABLE
CAT KID COMIC CLUB
Dav Pilkey
#1 Children’s Fiction, #3 overall
The Dog Man creator puts the canine cop’s sidekick center stage in a new illustrated series that celebrates “coming into one’s own as an artist,” our starred review said, “with all its frustrations and joys.”
LET US DREAM
Pope Francis
#17 Hardcover Nonfiction
“Any Catholic will want to check out this powerful, easily digestible work,” our starred review said. The pontiff “offers pastoral encouragement in this clarion call to create a more just and sustainable world.”
THE COUSINS
Karen M. McManus
#17 Children’s Fiction
McManus, best known for her YA suspense novel One of Us Is Lying, “once again crafts a taut, multilayered mystery,” our review said, “this time focusing on the fallout of family estrangement on the next generation.”
