What’s this?

As we close out the year, we thought it would be fun to make a list of all the books that, for one reason or another, didn’t quite make it into our boxes. We hope you look out for them at your local library or indie bookseller! You can also click on each of the titles to purchase them online.

Why didn’t these books make it?

There are many reasons why we choose not to go with certain books. Sometimes, they’re out of print or unavailable for purchase. Sometimes, they cost too much. Sometimes, they’re too big to fit in our boxes. Sometimes, we find out about a book way too late and go, “Darn it! This would have been perfect for [insert month here].” Often, we simply feel that the book doesn’t quite fit our theme, or that there’s a better book we’d like to offer instead, or that we’d like to promote the work of a lesser-known author. It tends to be a mix of availability, luck, and personal taste.

So, we’ll never see these books in New Suns boxes?

Never say never! There are many books and authors on this list that we continue to keep in mind for future boxes, and we look forward to the day we can finally offer them to you.

October: Beginnings

• Event Factory by Renee Gladman
• [insert] boy by Danez Smith
• Dispatch: Poems by Cameron Awkward-Rich
• Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
• You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened by Arisa White
• Ayiti by Roxane Gay

November: Gaining Ground

• Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
• An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
• A Mind Spread Out On the Ground by Alicia Elliott
• Words Like Thunder: New and Used Anishinaabe Prayers by Lois Beardslee
• Dissolve by Sherwin Bitsui
• Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s by Tiffany Midge
• Blue Bear Woman by Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau

December: Food For Thought

• Umami by Laia Jufresa, trans. Sophie Hughes
• Soufflé by Aslı E. Perker
• The Milk Lady of Bangalore: An Unexpected Adventure by Shoba Narayan
• If My Body Could Speak by Blythe Baird
• The Soviet Diet Cookbook: Exploring life, culture and history — one recipe at a time by Anna Kharzeeva
• The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
• Space Battle Lunchtime Vol. 1: Lights, Camera, Snacktion by Natalie Riess

January: Journeys, Exodus

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• Never Without Love by Mehrnaz Massoudi
• Forgotten Bread: First-Generation Armenian American Writers ed. David Kherdian
• Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century by Sarah Abreveya Stein
• Where the Jews Aren’t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region by Masha Gessen
• Every Day We Get More Illegal by Juan Felipe Herrera
• Thirty Shadow Birds by Fereshteh Molavi

Thank you for supporting New Suns in our inaugural year. We wish you a warm and cosy end to 2020, and a very Happy New Year 2021!