Tombolo Books

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher

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The Coin by Yasmin Zaher
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Yasmin Zaher’s stellar debut never lets the reader get quite comfortable in its prose, and it is in that discomfort The Coin finds its brilliance. New York feels, at times, surreal through the eyes of the narrator, who slips further and further into what I can only describe as a justifiable madness. As the narrator stumbles through a life forced upon her in America, she becomes increasingly more untethered to her life. Her homeland, Palestine, is out of reach, and in flashbacks to her childhood, we can glimpse the parts of herself she left there. Zaher ruminates on statelessness, nature, opulence, and beauty in the narrator’s slow spiral. The Coin is an incredible debut!

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher, (List Price: $27, Catapult, 9781646222100, July 2024)

Reviewed by Kelsey Jagneaux, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi

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A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi
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Virginie Grimaldi’s A Good Life was just what I needed at the beginning of the year. At first glance, you might think that this book won’t rip your heart out, but I can tell you that it absolutely does! Themes of grief, mental health, sisterhood, and family converge in gorgeous prose to create a story that feels familiar. Emma and Agathe’s deep love for each other will tug at the heartstrings of any girl who grew up with a sister. It is often time the everyday intricacies and complexities of life that can move us. These two ordinary women become extraordinary through their bond. Fans of Valerie Perrin here in the States are going to LOVE this novel!

A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi, (List Price: $28, Europa Editions, 9798889660248, June 2024)

Reviewed by Kelsey Jagneaux, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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Monsters by Claire Dederer

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Monsters by Claire Dederer
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What do we do with the work of monstrous artists? Can we separate it from their reprehensible actions and the suffering they cause? Claire Dederer doesn’t have an exact answer, but boy, was it thrilling to see her try to work it out on the page, using figures like Roman Polanski, JK Rowling, Woody Allen, Pablo Picasso, and others as her sparring partners. My favorite kind of nonfiction: thoughtful writing about tough stuff through the lens of the personal. More, please!

Monsters by Claire Dederer, (List Price: $17, Vintage, 9780525564188, April 2024)

Reviewed by Rachel Knox, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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Exhibit by R. O. Kwon

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Exhibit by R. O. Kwon
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Sexy sentences, startling images, and complicated and unexpected characters flesh out Kwon’s impressionistic peek inside the art world and the people who inhabit it. I kept finding myself picking up this book and flipping back to sections, re-reading them, and feeling like they were perfect little arias. Two women, with different art forms, brush up against one another at just the right time and form something larger than the sum of their parts. Not for those who need fast-paced, plot heavy action – but this book 100% rewards the lover of graceful language and intricate interiority. Loved, loved, loved.

Exhibit by R. O. Kwon, (List Price: $28, Riverhead Books, 9780593190029, May 2024)

Reviewed by Rachel Knox, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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James by Percival Everett

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James by Percival Everett
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Thoughtful and entertaining, the pages were flying! Jamesis both a thrilling ride up the Mississippi with Jim and Huck and a meditation on identity and language. Lots of laughs at the enslavers’ expense, playful inter-text, white knuckle tension, and gasps of relief. A contender for Best Book of the Year and propelled me into a Percival Everett deep dive.

James by Percival Everett, (List Price: $28, Doubleday, 9780385550369, March 2024)

Reviewed by Jackie Carlson, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

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The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
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This book is beautiful. An epic tale of everything good in fantasy. Magic, pirates , bombs and demons. This book has it all. But the best part of this book is the way the main character handles her own identity as a woman , mother and badass.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty, (List Price: $19.99, Harper Voyager, 9780062963512, March 2024)

Reviewed by Mekhala Villegas-Rogers, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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Bride by Ali Hazelwood

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Bride by Ali Hazelwood
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The “couldn’t put down”-ness with this book was unreal. A new vampire, werewolf romance that had me enthralled from page one. The relationship dynamic between the two main characters had a wonderful progression of tense unknown to familiar like. This book will be for all the “romantasy” readers who have been missing vampires and werewolves in their reading piles. But don’t worry we only have one team to root for and it is the RIGHT team.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood, (List Price: $19, Penguin Publishing Group, 9780593550403, February 2024)

Reviewed by Mekhala Villegas-Rogers, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

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The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
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n immersive trip through Southern Gothic Early America. The narrative follows a lone girl down the Potomac River, from Jamestown and into the unknown. Nameless or many-named like a barn-cat drifter, Girl wields caution, imagination and a blade to survive the crystalline forests of Virginia and Maryland. She drafts off a peloton of memories–as the British orphan, the mistress’s servant, Bess’s friend, the glassblower’s lover—that pull her forward to eat dirt and vibe with a bear in the present. It’s all about the stories that keep us alive. Groff’s easy and percussive writing, along with her use of time, space and inner dialogue, create an immediacy that had me trying to locate Girl’s coordinates on a map so I wouldn’t lose her. Captivating. Awesome. Great.

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff, (List Price: $28, Riverhead Books, 9780593418390, September 2023)

Reviewed by Jackie Carlson, Tombolo Books in St Petersburg, Florida

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The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec

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The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec
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Genevieve Gornichec is ready to become the historical fantasy queen. This book was everything I wanted and more. Fantasy elements that were easy to follow and that felt so authentic to the story. Romance that made me giddy with relationships that broke my heart. A tale of sisterhood and how our fate can intertwine with others in unexpecting ways made for a fantastic read.

The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec, (List Price: 27, Ace, 9780593438244, July 2023)

Reviewed by Alsace Walentine, Tombolo Books in St Petersburg, Florida

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Fight Night by Miriam Toews

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Fight Night by Miriam Toews
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A Fall Read This Next! Selection

Fight Night brings it. Every corner of human emotion is nudged, awakened, revealed. Nine year old Swiv and her Grandma are comrades and confidantes. While Swiv’s pregnant mother hustles back and forth between home and her faltering acting career, Grandma helps Swiv make sense of the world and their place in it, through vivid, sometimes bawdy, sometimes heartbreaking stories of her past. This novel is a reminder of the full potential of a book to connect us to our humanity and to inspire us to fight another day.

Fight Night by Miriam Toews, (List Price: $24, Bloomsbury Publishing, 9781635578171, October 2021)

Reviewed by Candice Anderson from Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, FL

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Matrix by Lauren Groff

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Matrix
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Lauren Groff shows us women’s desires in an entirely new way and in a place where desire, especially women’s desire is considered sin. The strength of Matrix lies in its voice and perspective. Groff builds a world where the men are periphery, yet the patriarchal structures and subservience to men’s wills rooted in the women who drive this novel are still palpable. It is a fine line to walk for any woman who dares to go against the grain, and Groff walks that line beautifully through Marie. Pick up this book at the first chance you get! It is sure to be one everyone will be talking about!.

Matrix by Lauren Groff, (List Price: 28, Riverhead Books, 9781594634499, September 2021)

Reviewed by Kelsey Jagneaux, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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