Here are a few new book releases from this week that are worth checking out…
(Where possible, we have also tried to include a review/interview related to each of the new book releases)
Get our picks of the week’s best books
in your inbox every week!
SIGN UP NOW for our weekly email newsletter!
***Our Starred New Book of the Week:

On Witness and Respair: Essays
Jesmyn Ward
( Scribner )
Buy Now: [ BookShop ] [ Amazon ]
Book Description:
The collected creative nonfiction of a singular American writer, Jesmyn Ward, including widely shared classics, three never-before-published speeches, and an introductory essay.
Respair (noun, obsolete), fresh hope after despair.
From the two-time National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Jesmyn Ward, this collection of essays documents more than a decade of work in the life of a singular writer often lauded as “the heir apparent to Toni Morrison” (LitHub). Beginning with her upbringing in a multigenerational household in rural Mississippi, the cradle of both her youth and her gift for storytelling, Ward brings her keen wisdom and hauntingly lyrical prose to a range of topics, following in her grandmother Dorothy’s footsteps when she promises always to “Tell it straight. Tell it all.”
True to her word, in these pages Ward contemplates the writers and novels of her youth and adulthood—the transformative power of discovering Octavia Butler as a twenty-something, the mirror that Richard Wright’s novels held up to her own childhood, and of course, her lifelong love for Toni Morrison. Ward ruminates on her approach to both fiction and life, reflecting on the power of the novel, how to raise a Black son in an era of rising divisiveness and cruelty, as well as her own personal tragedies—including the titular essay of the collection, which tells the story of her partner’s sudden death on the eve of the COVID-19 epidemic. Every bit as piercing and moving as her fiction, On Witness and Respair is a testament to Ward’s powers as “one of America’s finest living writers” (San Francisco Chronicle) and is a monument to hope, beauty, and personal and collective resilience.
***READ the NY Times review of this book …
NEXT BOOK >>>>>
![]() Reading for the Common Good From ERB Editor Christopher Smith "This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." -Karen Swallow Prior Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter & download your FREE copy of this ebook! |
Understanding Christian Nationalism [A Reading Guide] |
Most Anticipated Books of the Fall for Christian Readers!
|
Hilarious One-Star Customer Reviews of Bibles |






![Jesmyn Ward - Let Us Descend [Feature Review] Let-Us-Descend-1](https://englewoodreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Let-Us-Descend-1.jpeg)
![Jon Ward - Testimony [Review] Testimony](https://englewoodreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Testimony.jpeg)
















