Recommendations for holiday books authored by Austin writers

We asked experts at Malvern Books, the great little independent bookstore on West 29th Street, to send us a few recommendations for the best books by local authors in the last year.

What they're saying: "Oh my, you're making us choose just 3-5???? Becky Garcia, manager at Malvern, wrote to us. "This is not easy."

The staff selections:

"Bright Specimen," by Julie Poole

• A collection of poetry about botany and the natural world.

"Las Criaturas," by Leticia Urieta

• Poems and stories about women in strange and straitened circumstances.

"Little Girl Blue," by Sequoia Maner

• Elegiac poems brimming with a wide variety of Black voices.

"The Swallowed Man," by Edward Carey

• A strange and delightful retelling of the Pinocchio story.

"Let the Lord Sort Them," by Maurice Chammah

• A gripping history of the death penalty in America, with a special focus on Texas.

Bonus books by Austin writers that appeared in 2021:

• "This Weightless World," a sci-fi-inflected debut novel by Adam Soto
• "The Souvenir Museum," short stories by acclaimed writer Elizabeth McCracken