10 New Books for December
This month, we’ve got our eyes on Songs on Endless Repeat, Light As Light, and eight other titles by writers on the West.
BECOMING ELLA FITZGERALD: THE JAZZ SINGER WHO TRANSFORMED AMERICAN SONG, BY JUDITH TICK
In her latest work, Tick takes a look at the First Lady of Song. Referencing archives and news clippings, she pieces together Fitzgerald’s life from her early years in Yonkers and her first performance at the Apollo Theatre to the 1940s birth of bebop and her worldwide fame in the 1970s and 1980s. The book also features family interviews and never-before-seen images, providing a fresh look at one of the most enthralling voices in the history of jazz. W.W. Norton & Company, December 5
DEBORAH ROBERTS: TWENTY YEARS OF ART/WORK, BY DEBORAH ROBERTS AND EKOW ESHUN
Conversations and interviews with authors, essayists, and historians illuminate Roberts’s past two decades of work. Using paintings, hand-drawn sketches, and found images, the Austin-based artist draws on Black culture and history to create art that focuses on the plight of Black girls and boys and challenges normalized standards of beauty. Radius Books, December 5
DINNER TONIGHT, BY ALEX SNODGRASS
Eating a healthy dinner sounds nice—it’s just hard to do on a Wednesday, especially with hungry kids. Here, however, Snodgrass insists that tasty, nutritious meals are possible, even on a busy weeknight. The self-proclaimed food enthusiast and blogger provides a litany of easy-to-make but interesting recipes for a variety of diets, including paleo, Whole30, and gluten-free. William Morrow, December 26
LIGHT AS LIGHT, BY SIMON J. ORTIZ
Ortiz breaks a 20-year silence with this collection that celebrates the sacred and the quotidian. A Native poet, he contemplates the gravity and beauty of the written word in both English and the Indigenous language Keres. The interplay of language, culture, and history is a constant throughout this work, suggesting that life is best understood at the intersection of play and philosophical inquiry. University of Arizona Press, December 12
THE LOST TOMB, BY DOUGLAS PRESTON
If Indiana Jones had kept a diary, it might have read much like Preston’s new nonfiction work. After discovering a forgotten city in the Amazonian forest, an undertaking he documents in The Lost City of the Monkey God, the author travels across the globe, seeking to solve some of the ancient world’s most beguiling mysteries. His curiosity leads him to an Egyptian burial chamber, jungles in Honduras, and many other locales. Grand Central Publishing, December 5
MEET THE BENEDETTOS, BY KATIE COTUGNO
Cotugno’s novel is a modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice, in which, after their yearslong reality-TV show comes to an end, the Benedetto family find themselves on the brink of bankruptcy. When actor Charlie Bingley and his friend Will Darcy move to their Los Angeles neighborhood, their luck seems to change. Charlie and Benedetto sister June quickly fall for each other, but Lilly Benedetto and Will have a harder time seeing eye to eye. Both couples face opposition, while the Benedetto matriarch is determined to see her daughters matched. Harper Perennial, December 5
SEEING ONE THING THROUGH: THE ZEN LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF SOJUN MEL WEITSMAN, BY SOJUN MEL WEITSMAN
Raised in Southern California and long based in the Bay Area, Weitsman became one of the first American Zen masters and a dedicated student of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. His memoir recalls his early life and years as a painter in San Francisco before he became immersed in Buddhism. Traditional memoir structure yields to meditations on the practice of Zen as well as several of Weitsman’s talks, which have been edited for the book. Counterpoint LLC, December 12
SONGS ON ENDLESS REPEAT: ESSAYS AND OUTTAKES, BY ANTHONY VEASNA SO
So’s deft and moving debut, Afterparties, was published in 2021, less than a year after the young writer’s tragic death. This new book gathers the rest of what he left behind, exploring family, loss, and immigrant life as well as the author’s reflections on music and culture, queerness, his Cambodian-refugee parents, and California. Ecco Press, December 5
YOURS FOR THE TAKING, BY GABRIELLE KORN
In 2050, a post–climate crisis hellscape makes the world increasingly uninhabitable. Those looking to escape can apply for the Inside Project: corporate, city-size developments that promise safety for their residents. When billionaire Jacqueline Millender offers feminist empowerment, new Inside Project members Ava, Shelby, and Olympia get swept up in the mission. But in Korn’s novel, Jacqueline’s hypocrisy—and her mad grasp for power—can remain concealed for only so long. St. Martin’s Press, December 5
ZERO AT THE BONE: FIFTY ENTRIES AGAINST DESPAIR, BY CHRISTIAN WIMAN
Wiman is obsessed with despair. Zero at the Bone is his antidote: memoir, poetry, and criticism blended together to raise pressing questions about God, theology, and morality. The collection is peppered with the voices of those closest to him—his wife and young children—as well as the theorists and theologians who have influenced him, and, ultimately, its message, revealed with urgency and candor, is one of joy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, December 5
Elizabeth Casillas is an assistant editor at Alta Journal. A graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, she has previously written for the Poly Post and Enspire Magazine.
Jessica Blough is a freelance writer. A former associate editor at Alta Journal, Blough is a graduate of Tufts University where she was editor in chief of the Tufts Daily.
Ajay Orona is an associate editor at Alta Journal. He earned a master’s degree from USC Annenberg’s School of Journalism in 2021 and was honored with an Outstanding Specialized Journalism (The Arts) Scholar Award. His writing has appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, Ampersand, and GeekOut.
