RA for All Visits Sourcebooks and Recommends Five Upcoming Titles

Last week I took a drive out to Naperville, IL to take a tour of Sourcebooks. Sourcebooks is celebrating their 30th anniversary in style. Last year their founder Dominique Raccah was named PW Person of the Year and this year they became the 10th largest publisher in America. It is a success story that we don't hear often enough in our line of work.

This is a independent publisher who is doing things right in a very tough market. Also, they do this from the Chicago suburbs, while most of publishing is in NYC. The Library Marketing team in particular are always front and center at any conference booktalking their titles to us. They know they are smaller than their competition, but they also know their books are just as good. And they are. Critics and readers agree.

Some of Sourcebooks' recent rise has to do with the fact that they embraced the Diverse Books movement before it was a movement. Precisely because they couldn't compete financially for the more mainstream authors, Sourcebooks has always been forced to look further afield for new voices. They have focused on bringing International bestsellers to American audiences for the first time. They have also found own voices authors like Zoraida Córdova and her Brooklyn Brujas series which have gone on to be hugely successful both with readers and critics.

This is one of the reasons why I asked Sourcebooks to be a part of the ARRT sponsored panel I have organized for the upcoming ILA Annual Conference [details next week]. I asked their representative to talk bluntly about how publishing diverse voices is a money maker. Why? Because there are amazing authors not getting a chance to publish their awesome stories that readers crave and love, and the only way to convince publishers to change from their status quo is to show them how much money diversity can make for you.

But more on that panel coming soon. Today, I wanted to highlight 5 new and upcoming titles from Sourcebooks which I am very excited about. And I think you should listen to me because earlier this year I got super excited about Radium Girls months before its release and I was 100% right about that one. Order these titles as soon as you can! So without further ado, here they are, in order of release date with links and descriptions from Goodreads.

The Girl from Rawblood by Catriona Ward [3/7/17]. Interesting fact about Ward, while she was born in the US she grew up in Africa and the Middle East. She brings a non-Western view point to her work, making this title rise above the many other current takes on Gothic, historical fiction:

The genre-bending creativity of David Mitchell meets the gothic voice of Susan Hill in this highly praised debut 

Iris and her father are the last of the Villarca line. For generations, the Villarcas have been haunted by "her." Her origins are a mystery, but her purpose is clear: when a Villarca marries, when they love, when they have a child—she comes, and death follows. 

Confined in their lonely mansion on Dartmoor, Iris makes her father a promise—to remain alone all her life. But when she's fifteen, Iris breaks that promise. She dares to fall in love, and the consequences of her choice are immediate and heartbreaking. From the sun-spotted hills of Italy to the biting chill of Victorian dissection halls, The Girl from Rawblood is a lyrical and haunting historical novel of darkness, love, and the ghosts of the past.

The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J. Walker. [9/5/17] This one I have read, and I will also be singing it's praises in the October 1 issue of Library Journal. This is an excellent and gripping apocalyptic tale. I am also giving away copies of this book everywhere I go this fall:

Perfect for fans of The Martian, this powerful post-apocalyptic thriller pits reluctant father Edgar Hill in a race against time to get back to his wife and children. When the sky begins to fall and he finds himself alone, his best hope is to run – or risk losing what he loves forever.

When the world ends and you find yourself forsaken, every second counts. No one knows this more than Edgar Hill. Stranded on the other side of the country from his wife and children, Ed must push himself across a devastated wasteland to get back to them. With the clock ticking and hundreds of miles between them, his best hope is to run -- or risk losing what he loves forever.

Mister Tender's Girl by Carter Wilson [2/13/18]. With it's inspiration in a true story, this is a frightening ride just slightly on the horror side of thriller. Great for Stephen King and Gillian Flynn fans:

How far are you willing to go for Mister Tender?

At fourteen, Alice Hill was viciously attacked by two of her classmates and left to die. The teens claim she was a sacrifice for a man called Mister Tender, but that could never be true: Mister Tender doesn't exist. His sinister character is pop-culture fiction, nothing more.

Over a decade later, Alice has changed her name and is trying to heal. But someone is watching her. They know more about Alice than any stranger: her scars, her fears, and the secrets she keeps locked away. She can try to escape her past, but he is never far behind.

Addictive and chillingly surprising, this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller will have you transfixed until the very last page

Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano [8/18]. Yes that Eoin Colfer. This graphic novel, for ages 10 and up, will become a classic. It brings the struggles of refugees to the masses in a way that will effect everyone who encounters it. Like Maus, Persepolis and March before it, Illegal will allow for the average American and their children to engage in important and necessary conversations about our world and some of the most difficult moments in recent history. Sourcebooks has not entered the graphic novel market until now, and boy did they pick a great book to begin their line. I have read this one and if you are not moved by it, there is something wrong with you.

This is a powerful and timely story about one boy's epic journey across Africa to Europe, a graphic novel for all children with glorious colour artwork throughout. From Eoin Colfer, previously Irish Children's Laureate, and the team behind his bestselling Artemis Fowl graphic novels.

Ebo: alone.

His sister left months ago. Now his brother has disappeared too, and Ebo knows it can only be to make the hazardous journey to Europe.

Ebo's epic journey takes him across the Sahara Desert to the dangerous streets of Tripoli, and finally out to the merciless sea. But with every step he holds on to his hope for a new life, and a reunion with his sister.

And last, but definitely not least the book I am most excited to dive into, once all my required, work reading is done, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton [9/18]. That link goes to the British version which comes out sooner, and doesn't include the 1/2 in the title. This book is Life After Life mixed with Agatha Christie and a touch of Twin Peaks. I am going to sit down with this one some time this winter and inhale it. Can't wait.

Somebody’s going to be murdered at the ball tonight. It won’t appear to be a murder and so the murderer won’t be caught. Rectify that injustice and I’ll show you the way out.

It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed.

But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot. 

The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath...

For the full Sourcebooks catalog, click here.

And please don't forget about publishers outside the Big 5.