There are a few hotly anticipated books hitting the shelves this week, and by "hot," we're not referring to the temperature of the sidewalk outside the store. No, these books are—well, we wrote, rewrote, and rewrote again the next line, and none of them worked as well as just saying: "Come get 'em before they're gone!" What are we talking about? 

Well, this one. 

And this one.

One of them is a "mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem" starring everyone's favorite lesbian necromancer, and the other one is a romance novel about a thousand year old bloodsucker who gets obsessed about a high school girl. One probably takes itself way too seriously, and the other does not. Plan accordingly. 

Meanwhile, the latest Longmire novel is out in paperback this week. 
 

As is the latest Joe Pickett novel. 
 

This is the twentieth book in C. J. Box's series Pickett series and the fifteenth in Craig Johnson's Longmire series. Both take place in Wyoming, and both feature lawmen who are perpetually finding a lot more trouble than you'd expect in such picturesque landscapes. Dependable reads, really, and if you haven't started either series, you should, because, well, that should be enough books to keep you busy for a few weeks. 
 

Meanwhile, Grumpy Unicorn hits the road in—wait for it—Grumpy Unicorn Hits the Road. Now, we get it: staying at home can be really boring, but come on, a road trip? Who isn't up for a road trip this summer? Grumpy Unicorn's got nothing to be grumpy about. Oh, except for unexpected guests like Sassy the Sasquatch and Jack the Jackelope. Yeah, okay, extra passengers can make you grumpy. 
 

And speaking of being entertained by grumpy contrarians, Benjamin Dreyer's terribly entertaining guide to proper style and grammar is out in paperback. Dreyer is Random House's copy chief, and he's got the wit to back up his snarky observations about proper comma use, style guides, and English words that no one uses correctly. 
 

Additionally, there's a party game called Stet!, which is based on Dreyer's book. Handy for when . . . well, when you put together that dinner party and no one shows up and you have to entertain yourself for a few hours. Trust us, playing grammar games is much better than binge-eating all those canapés that you made. 
 

Meanwhile, one of our favorite illustrators is back with a new book. In Mammoth Science: The Big Ideas That Explain Our World, David Macaulay walks through some of the cosmic and massive concepts that make our world work the way it does. Accompanied by a curious mammoth, Macaulay renders complicated scientific ideas into simple graphic illustrations that are filled with granular delights. 
 

And speaking of great design, we've been digging Hanna Karlzon's work, and she's got a new themed coloring book out this week. Tales from a Midnight Masquerade takes you to a grand costume party where everything is monochromatic and filled with shadows. It's up to you to bring the color to this spooky gathering. Darker than her Daydeams coloring book and her Summer Nights book, but still as evocative and delightful as ever. 

And to wrap things around to the beginning again, here are two more books that qualify as hot commodities. 

Erin Morgenstern's smashing tale of pirates and secrets and what story really means to us as thinking creatures. 
 

And The Finality Problem, the long-awaited fifth book in the G. S. Denning's Warlock Holmes series. Holmes is still possessed, Watson has been banished from Baker Street, and Irene Adler is back! Hellfire and hilarity in equal measure. Plus, our copies are signed! 

Two administrative notes to finish this off:

1) We are open on Sunday again. 11 - 4. We've missed our Sunday crowd. We know they've missed us. Standard 2020 safety rules still apply, though. 

2) By the time you read this, we'll have had our first virtual book club meeting, where we didn't talk about any of the books, so you haven't missed much. Coordination of the VBC is via a private Facebook group. You should join if you are interested (here's the link), and if you are not a Facebook person, email us and we'll add you to the less-talky-but-still-informative mailing list.