Happy New Titles: January Content Update

New Titles for the New Year

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Zevin slingshots readers back to the 1990s, setting her chart-topping tale in the pixelated realm of video game design. Featuring two characters who are, as the logline puts it, “often in love, but never lovers,” Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is an astonishingly tender glimpse into the lives of two friends and game designers, Sadie and Sam, as they traverse a decade of complicated and painful friendship.

Though the setting is indulgent – and nostalgic to an extreme – the story is anything but. As the duo trace first their teenage years and then their twenties together, they face the quintessential heartbreaks of each era. Yet, through every loss, they find each other again, reunited through their shared love for the digital landscape. Sadie and Sam’s saga offers an unconventional portrait of unrequited love, inviting readers to follow along as they encounter the natural ebb and flow of life, facing first global success and then a series of devastating losses, together.

For a deep dive into the methods Zevin used to drive the seemingly simple story of two video game designers to international success, check out our analysis of the work’s more technical elements here. Or, if you’re still waiting for the copy you put on hold months ago, check out our chapter summaries for a taste of Zevin’s instant classic.

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Maya Stern Burkett is a lot of things – a former combat pilot for the U.S. army struggling with PTSD, mother of one, and as of recently, a newly-minted widow. But, as Coben peels away the layers of yet another bestselling thriller, readers soon learn that, as the title implies, there is one thing she isn’t: A fool.

As the murder of Maya’s husband swirls ever closer to the still-unsolved murder of her sister, Claire, years ago. With ballistics showing a match between the crime then and the crime now, it seems as if the killer is back – and is gunning for Maya. With conspiracy in the air and fingers pointed everywhere (but especially at Maya), the truth seems unattainable. All those years of fostering normalcy in the wake of her disastrous time spent serving overseas seem to be for naught, as Maya must race against the clock to unmask the owner of the gun that took the lives of those closest to her.

Fool Me Once is a Corben classic, fraught with suspense, featuring ever-heightening stakes, and never failing to deliver on unexpected twists. But if too much tension isn’t for you, check out the highlights here.

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Fed up with fancy language and incomprehensible writing? You’re not alone. In 1821, English literary critic and essayist William Hazlitt expressed a statement that has since been echoed by generations of students: Writing should reject obscurity in vocabulary and convolution in prose. A good writer, in Hazlitt’s eyes, is one able and willing “to write as any one would speak in common conversation who had a thorough command and choice of words.” 

In Hazlitt’s defense, his essay called for more than just familiarity. Writing, he argued, should be clear and legible, but it should also stray from pedantry and vulgarity. In short, he believed in a distinct voice, one that appealed to the genteel masses of Enlightenment England – perhaps a bit more complex than the call for simplicity that might be heard from your average high schooler. Though his prose may no longer reflect the “familiar style” of today’s readers and writers, Hazlitt’s essay is a much-needed reminder about the ultimate goal of writing: To reach the head and touch the heart.

To read more about Hazlitt’s contemporarily hot take, be sure to peruse our summary of his key points, as well as our analysis of his writing style – and evaluation of whether he holds himself to the “familiar style” of which he speaks or not.

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Not-so-New Titles: Updating Old Favorites

As part of our monthly content updates, we’ve dug through our archives to highlight two classic plays: one romantic, one satiric, and both dramatic.

If you’re looking for a love triangle set within a moralistic musing on the romanticization of war, Shaw’s satiric Romantic Comedy, Arms and the Man. But if you’re more interested in a self-aware, eighteenth-century Comedy of Manners, Sheridan’s 1777 The School for Scandal – a five-act satire poking fun at the affects of the upper class – might be your speed.

Dive into the estates of Enlightenment England’s most absurd elites or step into the chaos and confusion of the Serbo-Bulgarian War – there’s no better way to start your 2024 than by checking off a classic play from your reading list.

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And that’s a wrap on January’s new titles! Thanks for sticking with us into 2024 – we’ll catch you next month with another collection of brand-new titles (and, perhaps, some ooey-gooey Valentine’s Day content, just in time for February!).

Until then, best of luck on your reading resolutions! We’d love to know what book you kicked off your 2024 with or which titles are on your TBR list for the year, so drop us a line in the comments.