23 new books out today.
It’s the first Tuesday of April, month of showers, flowers, and slowly warming weather, and, should you find yourself inside, consider curling up with one (or more) of these:
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Tiffany Clarke Harrison, Blue Hour
(Soft Skull)
“In lyrical language, Harrison skillfully explores the complex tensions that gnaw at the expectant mother…and offers an intimate view of the couple’s pain. This signals the arrival of a brave new writer.”
–Publishers Weekly
Ling Ling Huang, Natural Beauty
(Dutton)
“This is a darkly absurd and hilarious skewering of the luxury beauty industry, as well as a heart-wrenching story of a woman left alone in the world. It’s definitely not one to miss.”
–Buzzfeed
Kweku Abimbola, Saltwater Demands a Psalm: Poems
(Graywolf)
“Saltwater Demands a Psalm, arrives with the assured confidence that comes from an understanding of the force of ritual in poetry—there is, in these poems, a deep sense of tradition and history that is transported through lyric assurance into a poetics that feels excitingly fresh. Abimbola…is helping us see ourselves anew, with the power of ancestral vision.”
–Kwame Dawes
Melissa Coss Aquino, Carmen and Grace
(William Morrow)
“I was crying like I lost my best friend as I finished… This book is an act of love… It will break you apart and remind you that we can all be put back together again, stronger, and wiser than before.”
–Xochitl Gonzalez
Nicole Chung, A Living Remedy: A Memoir
(Ecco)
“Like the best memoirs, Nicole Chung’s A Living Remedy is both an excavation of the self and the people who sustain it—but also, at its core, a work of art undergirded by a tender, forgiving, and awe-filled gaze at what it means to live and hurt in the human world. The result is a bone-deep enactment of love in all its valences.”
–Ocean Vuong
Dionne Ford, Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing
(Bold Type Books)
“In her powerful memoir, Dionne Ford tells the story of finding a photograph that leads her to unexpected discoveries in her family’s past and the healing of the intergenerational trauma it unleashes.”
–Ms. Magazine
Annie Ernaux, Look at the Lights, My Love (trans. Alison L. Strayer)
(Yale University Press)
“A dryly charming look at the way the French live now, through the sharp eyes of its most acclaimed chronicler.”
–Kirkus
Viorica Marian, The Power of Language: How the Codes We Use to Think, Speak, and Live Transform Our Minds
(Dutton)
“Marian, a professor of communication sciences and disorders at Northwestern University, makes a convincing case for multilingualism in her illuminating debut….Marian’s extensive research and thoughtful analysis lend this entry weight, and the lay reader-friendly prose makes it all go down smoothly. Curious monolinguals will be inspired to expand their linguistic horizons.”
–Publishers Weekly
Anthony Chin-Quee, I Can’t Save You: A Memoir
(Riverhead)
“Raw, honest, and powerful, I Can’t Save You gives us unrestricted access to Anthony Chin-Quee’s mind as he confronts his demons of identity and race. With biting humor and brutal honesty, Chin-Quee explores the question every marginalized voice has whispered into the dark: What is the cost of achieving success in a world that was not built for us? This book is essential reading for anyone interested in how we tell our truths.”
–Kendra James
Pattiann Rogers, Flickering
(Penguin)
“[Flickering] burnishes [Rogers’] reputation as a transcendental poet of science, with Emersonian grandiosity….Verses of dizzying scope succumb to the gravitational pull of breathtakingly precise lines….This is a poignant homage to scientific attention and mystery.”
–Publishers Weekly
Michelle Min Sterling, Camp Zero
(Atria Books)
“In an equally tantalizing and terrifying tour de force, Michelle Min Sterling boldly remixes the realities of our present world, the danger we are in, and the fates we have settled for through a mesmerizing story of loyalty, deception, and ultimately love. Camp Zero’s dark twists and bright turns left me breathless, hopeful, furious, and emboldened until the very end.”
–Nancy Jooyoun Kim
Jane Roper, The Society of Shame
(Anchor)
“A hilarious romp through cancel culture, performative activism, and politics. [Roper] manages a fine balance between quippy humor and genuine emotion, and as Kat steps out of her husband’s shadow, the book becomes a woman’s journey of self-discovery and a mother-daughter story.”
–Booklist
Timothy Egan, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
(Viking)
“With narrative elan, Egan gives us a riveting saga of how a predatory con man became one of the most powerful people in 1920s America, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, with a plan to rule the country—and how a grisly murder of a woman brought him down. Compelling and chillingly resonant with our own time.”
–Erik Larson
Susanna Moore, The Lost Wife
(Knopf)
“Based partly on a woman’s account of her abduction along with her children during the Sioux Uprising in 1862, Moore’s novel is a tense, absorbing tale of adversity and survival….Moore has imagined a brave, perceptive woman with no illusions about the hypocrisy of those who proclaim themselves civilized….A devastating tale rendered with restrained serenity.”
–Kirkus
Chad L. Williams, The Wounded World: W. E. Du Bois and the First World War
(FSG)
“Stirring intellectual history….Williams convincingly renders Du Bois as a tragic figure whose optimism was dashed by the intransigence of racism, adding poignancy to a story about the limits and fragility of American democracy. At once a moving character study and a deeply researched look at a dispiriting era from the country’s past, this is history at its most vivid.”
–Publishers Weekly
Monica Brashears, House of Cotton
(Flatiron Books)
“Startling, vivid, and impressive… Brashears has written a lush, pictorial,and often steamy novel with an indelible heroine. Coupling classic gothic elements with a realistic portrayal of the issues facing a young, poor, Black woman with few options, the novel’s many strengths culminate in a powerful and original story that will appeal to a variety of readers across fiction genres.”
–Booklist
Susanna Hoffs, This Bird Has Flown
(Little Brown)
“This Bird has Flown is a blast of pure pleasure, an addictive medley of music, romance, secrets, and sex. Susanna Hoffs’ captivating first novel is part British romcom, part Jane Eyre, and one hundred percent enjoyable.”
–Tom Perrotta
Isabella Hammad, Enter Ghost
(Grove)
“A] soul-stirring and dramatic tale of a Palestinian family’s exile and reconciliation….The layered text, rich in languages and literary references, dives deep into Sonia’s consciousness, illustrating her hopes for what art can accomplish. This deeply human work will stay with readers.”
–Publishers Weekly
Omer Aziz, Brown Boy: A Memoir
(Scribner)
“The significance of Omer Aziz’s Brown Boy is captured in the very first story he tells–that tension between being caught between two worlds. When Derek Walcott writes, ‘Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?,’ Aziz responds with Brown Boy, a powerful articulation of what it means to navigate not just identities, but borders and possibility.”
–Reginald Dwayne Betts
Henri Cole, Gravity and Center: Selected Sonnets
(FSG)
“These sonnets embody all the best qualities of this poet’s enviable economy of language, evocative imagery, wicked turns of phrase, and sheer lyrical genius… That Cole manages to range the wide spectrum of human experience within the 14 lines of the sonnet is testament both to the poet’s craft and the form itself.”
–Booklist
Alejandro Varela, The People Who Report More Stress: Stories
(Astra House)
“The People Who Report More Stress blends humor and social commentary with the thing that drives the best fiction: an honest and vulnerable exploration of messy human relationships. Fans of Varela’s first novel, as well as newcomers to his work, will find a lot to love in this collection.”
–Bookpage
Will Gompertz, See What You’re Missing: New Ways of Looking at the World Through Art
(Pegasus Books)
“A well-organized labor of love….Gompertz insightfully explores the processes and personalities of a remarkable roster of artists by focusing on a single work in each one’s portfolios in his illuminating title. Effortless prose and laser focus on the communicative potential of art make this a worthwhile read.”
–Library Journal
A. Light Zachary, More Sure: Poems and Interruptions
(Arsenal Pulp Press)
“In this beautiful debut collection, A. Light Zachary alchemizes a philosopher’s intellect with the soul of a poet. Weaving deftly through classic texts and pop culture references, from sharply political to deeply personal, More Sure is a haunting love song to those who live in the shadows. Zachary is a master of their craft and a virtuoso talent, and they balance acute emotion with subtle wit. These are poems that will make you think and feel for a long time.”
–Kai Cheng Thom
