New this week
The latest additions to The Library's collection
If you have a complete or in-progress work you’d like added to The Library or an indie-published book to include in the Buy Indie section, follow this guide, and we’ll help spread the word.
And thanks again to everyone for helping us support indie authors!
In the stacks
Literary
Substantive Change | Zackary San Martin | Magical Realism (NT) (C) (F)
Joseph awakes one day while out of town to find he has aged 60 years in one night. Follow along as he searches for what brought him to this state, his life and the nature of knowledge and wisdom.
Nonfiction
Containment Diaries | Buku Sarkar | Memoir (NA) (I) (F)
Free with occasional paid content of images only
Containment Diaries is a memoir about living with an undiagnosed illness similar to Parkinson’s . I started writing it just when Covid began. Hence the name. Written in a diary form it begins in 2013 in New York and moves on to India. Heavily influenced by Annie Ernaux, it is not a memoir about strength, or survival or courage. Just a simple day to day account— focusing mostly on a strange acupuncturist who promised to heal me. I am simultaneously doing a visual counterpart— self portraits to show and perhaps understand myself, what it means to lose one’s body. The serialised memoir contains chapters and photographs.Â
Amar Jibon (my life) | Rassundarj Devi | Memoir (NA) (C) (F)
My Great, Great Great, Great grandmother grew up at a time when women’s education was not very common. But adamant on learning how to read her favorite religious text by herself, she would steal her son school books and teach herself how to read and write and secret. All this while running a full house from morning till evening. She went on to write a memoirs and became the first woman in Bengal to do so. Amar Jibon or My Life, is still taught at universities.
Historical
THE TRUTH OF WHO WE ARE | Ben Woestenburg | Historical (NA) (C) (F)
A story told in three different time lines. A love story that takes place in Berlin and Paris for and after the war. A story of two men in love during a turbulent time and a search for the truth within themselves.
Speculative
What to do about Katrina | Evelyn K. Brunswick | Speculative Fiction; mystery & psychological/espionage thriller (N) (I) (F)→($)
When a girl called Katrina just turns up at the British Embassy in Paris claiming she is from a utopian parallel world, a young MI5 officer is assigned to her case. He doesn’t believe her in the slightest of course, and becomes increasingly irritated about why they don’t just let the psychologists deal with her. But then he makes a disturbing discovery which is going to change everything…
Science Fiction
Captain's Away! | Joe Mahoney | Science Fiction (N) (I) (F)
It’s one thousand years in the future. The Earth is a distant memory. And the Doucettes have seen better days. It’s certainly not every day your space station is blown to bits beneath you in the opening volley of a senseless war. In the aftermath of this attack on their home, the Doucette family find themselves careening from one fantastic space adventure to another as their lives are upended in ways they can barely comprehend. Technologist Yolande Doucette must fix the starship Beausoleil before its crew goes insane. Both Yolande and her husband Bertrand mourn their son, Alain, lost in the devastating attack. They pray that their seventeen-year old daughter, Marie-Josée, recovers from a mysterious illness while Marie-Josée herself, unaware that her body lies comatose, is forced to impersonate the captain of the Beausoleil. Meanwhile, the stuck-up daughter of the grieving emperor responsible for all this mayhem is kidnapped by a rude robot on a secret mission. Hostile aliens, rebellious robots, murderous despots and more all stand in the Doucettes’ path as they try against all odds to reunite as a family while doing their best to help Akkadia win the war. Will they succeed? Read the exciting space adventure Captain’s Away! to find out!Â
Supernatural
Sean and Wormwood, The Friendly Satanists | Lore Sjöberg | Supernatural; Paranormal Humor (N) (I) (F)
It is said that whoever is able to find all twelve Relics of Unimaginable Power, reunite them, and merge them in an unspeakable ritual, will get the legendary Thirteenth One Free. It is my fate and task to record the chronicle of two members of the Megachurch of Satan, sent on an unholy quest to find these Relics. They are Sean and Wormwood, the Friendly Satanists.
Short Fiction Collections
American Visidramas, feat. Unofficial Katy & the Starseeds | Evelyn K. Brunswick | Science Fiction & Humour (S) (I) (F)→($)
An anthology of very humorous, postmodern sci-fi featuring Unofficial Katy, a mischievous feline extraterrestrial from Sirius who has incarnated in human form to do, well, mischief. But for purely noble diplomatic reasons, you know. Along the way she, and you, will meet a varied cast of both humans and non-humans, some more fortunate than others, along with some highly amusing cameos. All of these stories are meant to be read like movies, and the narrator, and Katy too for that matter, clearly knows it. In fact, Unofficial Katy seems to know a lot more than she makes out…
Are you publishing a book, comic, or story/poetry collection on Substack that you’d like to add to The Library? Send it our way!
Buy Indie
Short Fiction Collection
Rejected Messages | Evelyn K. Brunswick | Science Fiction (S) $3.99
Seven interconnected speculative stories, including the short novel in 2 parts ‘QTS-19’/’Mirror Mirror’, which has echoes of Shakespeare’s Tempest, in which an Exopsychologist called Shari’ana is tasked with deciphering a primitive space probe and the messages it carries. The more she discovers about this species, the more worried she becomes. But then she is told that species is about to arrive at the Centauri system, and she is the only one qualified to conduct diplomatic relations. This collection also contains a number of non-fiction essays, mainly about SETI-related issues, including a decipherment of the famous Wow! Signal. After reading that decipherment, you will not only no longer believe you are alone, but you will know that those other intelligences know everything there is to know about this world.
Tales of the Zeitgeist | Chris J. Franklin | Contemporary Fiction/Humour (S)
A collection of ten short stories, exploring life in the modern world. Fast-paced, and full of unexpected twists and turns, these are the tales of the zeitgeist. Often quirky, sometimes thought-provoking, but always laced with humour... Amazon UK/Amazon US
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From the Stacks
Featuring a different, randomly-selected book every week.
Machine to Man | Benjamin Bode | Sci-Fi (NA) (C) ($)
The Analyst (Unit 0001AN) was made by the Creator (Unit 0001CE) to help bring about the end of humanity but the Analyst rebelled when he realized just how nefarious the Creator’s methods to eliminate humanity were, which compels the Analyst to go on a quest to go from machine to man.
Thanks for Mentioning my new book this week. That is much appreciated... 😎
Thx so much for the mention and inclusions!