Enjoy these October recommendations from our friends at Bookish, Fort Smith, Arkansas’s only independently owned bookstore. Order online at BookishFS.com.
The Island of Last Things
by Emma Sloley
Sloley’s new novel imagines a near-future where entire ecosystems have collapsed and zoos are the last strongholds for endangered animals. One by one, though, those zoos close because they have been starved of funding, targeted by protests, or devastated by disease. The final zoo stands on Alcatraz Island, operating within the walls of the old prison.
At its heart is Camille, a young woman who has spent her adult life working at the zoo, more at ease with animals than people. Her quiet existence is upended when Sailor, a captivating former zookeeper, arrives. Sailor’s charisma and fierce devotion to the animals draw Camille into a dangerous plan to smuggle creatures to a rumored sanctuary in China. While the world Sloley paints is undeniably dark, she reminds us that hope begins with imagination and that picturing a better world is the first step to create one.
Hot Wax
by M.L. Rio
If you love stories that pulse with music and jump across time, this is the book for you. Told in three intertwined timelines, it follows the daughter of a touring musician who’s always chasing the dream but never quite catching it. Her dad is just famous enough to vanish from family life, leaving her to wrestle with his absence and the intoxicating, complicated world of music he drags her into when she joins him on tour.
Flashout
by Alexis Soloski
This novel sweeps through the gritty, electric streets of ‘70s New York to sun-soaked California in ‘97, tracing the ripple effects of a young woman’s choices. When a college student sneaks out of her dorm to see a notorious theater troupe, she’s instantly captivated and soon entwined in their world of art, rebellion, secrecy, and estranged relationships. Decades later, now a teacher in California, the past resurfaces, threatening everything she’s built.
Katabasis
by R.F. Kuang
If you’ve ever been engulfed in the heartbreak that is academia, you’ll love this sharp, funny novel that turns the grind of grad school into actual hell: grant begging, endless essay marking, and supervisors who ghost your emails. Following two scholars of “analytic magick,” Kuang blends satire, dark humor, and campus drama into a fast read. This novel has teeth: playful, angry, and all too real for those who’ve lived the struggle.
