We were so excited to see THREE of our books listed on Oprah.com as "…the Best Books to Pick Up Before Summer Ends." The article included: Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins, Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden, and Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall. Find out more about these titles below.
From the acclaimed cultural critic and New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing—a writer whom Roxane Gay has hailed as “a force to be reckoned with”—comes this powerful story of her journey to understand her northern and southern roots, the Great Migration, and the displacement of black people across America.
From the article on Oprah.com:
An addictive and groundbreaking debut thriller set on a Native American reservation.
Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.
From the article on Oprah.com:
"In his assured debut novel, David Heska Wanbli Weiden melds the gritty realism of Dashiell Hammett with the lyricism of Tommy Orange."
Additional praise for Winter Counts:
“Weiden combines funny, complex, and unforgettable characters with strong, poetic prose. . . This is crime fiction at its best.”
—Publishers Weekly 
review
"Winter Counts is a terrific debut—tight and tense, hard-eyed and big-hearted. David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s main character, Virgil Wounded Horse, is as compelling, complex, and sharply observed as the world he inhabits."
—Lou Berney, Edgar Award-winning author of November Road and The Long and Faraway Gone
“Winter Counts is a marvel. It’s a thriller with a beating heart and jagged teeth. This book is a brilliant meditation on power and violence, and a testament to just how much a crime novel can achieve. Weiden is a powerful new voice. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Tommy Orange, author of There There
Request the egalley from Edelweiss+
Request the egalley on NetGalley
On Sale: August 25, 2020
____
An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings.
From the article on Oprah.com:
"In this alluring cocktail of a novel, a dying dance teacher reminisces and records for posterity his memories of Detroit’s postwar ferment of Black artists, writers, musicians, and activists, a 'caramel Camelot…a rare light and a heat,' with cameos by Ethel Waters and Dinah Washington."
Additional praise for Black Bottom Saints:
"This is an exuberant celebration of the arts, including the arts of living well and caring for others…. Each of Randall’s books is a literary event, and readers will embrace this radiant celebration of African American art and culture."
—Booklist review
"Black Bottom Saints is easily the most inventive and musical novel I've read in a decade. Alice Randall has rewritten and re-energized the rules of the American novel!"
—Kiese Laymon, author of Long Division and Heavy, Professor of English and Creative Writing, University of Mississippi
Black Bottom Saints is available now.
Find the full list of books here.
-Lainey