Ibram X. Kendi, Asako Yuzuki, Anne Lamott, and more: 20 new books out today!

It’s the last week of a relentless winter, God willing. One more 30-degree day on the horizon, but who’s counting? Let’s count the books instead: there’s a great new cascade of literature today, a healthy selection of both nonfiction and novels. Ibram X. Kendi, Elinor Cleghorn, and Ian Buruma all deliver scintillating works of nonfiction on authoritarianism, motherhood, and the Holocaust. And there are many works of fiction to be excited about: Casey Scieszka’s debut novel called The Fountain, Under Water by Tara Menon, and a new work by Asako Yuzuki all number among our most anticipated. Read on for the full list, and happy Tuesday!

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Ibram X. Kendi, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age
(One World)

“A rousing call for solidarity across lines of class and race in order to fight fascism.”
–Publishers Weekly

Asako Yuzuki, trans. by Polly Barton, Hooked
(Ecco)

“Admiration of course devolves into obsession in this tightly wound piece of work … Packs a punch.”
–Cultured

Casey Scieszka, The Fountain
(Harper)

“Wildly entertaining, deeply intelligent, and genuinely moving.”
–Stephanie Danler

Elinor Cleghorn, A Woman’s Work: Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering
(Dutton)

“Cleghorn takes a sweeping view of motherhood … Impressive research informs a vibrantly detailed history.”
–Kirkus

Tara Menon, Under Water
(Riverhead)

“Menon writes exquisite sentences, sensual and particular, each containing an entire world.”
–Katie Kitamura

Ian Buruma, Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945
(Penguin Press)

“A far-reaching and masterly work.”
–Library Journal

Hannah Lillith Assadi, Paradiso 17
(Knopf)

“An intense, fearless, lyrical, and quite astonishing novel about the haunted apparitional life of a refugee.”
–Joy Williams

Anne Lamott and Neal Allen, Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences
(Avery)

“Whether you’re a novice writer or a seasoned author, this entertaining guide will revolutionize your approach to crafting sentences.”
–From the publisher

Mieko Kawakami, trans. by Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio, Sisters in Yellow
(Knopf)

“Kawakami unfurls a remarkable noir-tinged tale of female desperation … The author scales new heights with this gripping and propulsive novel.”
–Publishers Weekly

James H. McCommons, The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds
(St. Martin’s Press)

“A well-researched and compelling example of nature writing.”
–Booklist

Jade Song, I Love You Don’t Die
(William Morrow)

“A high-stakes, slowly unfolding examination of what makes life worth living, offering dark comedy and a dash of hope amid despair.”
–Booklist

Carl Phillips, In the Blood: Poems
(FSG)

“Even in his first book of poems, the deep contradictions in Carl Phillips’s work are already pronounced.”
–From the publisher

Wayne Koestenbaum, My Lover, the Rabbi
(FSG)

“A brilliant book, written with manic zeal and cool strategy.”
–Chris Kraus

Bassem Khandaqji, trans. by Addie Leak, A Mask the Color of the Sky
(Europa)

“A novel worth reading for its intense experimentation and aesthetics, and for the kind of questions it raises about identity and identities.”
–Al Jazeera

Nancy Foley, I Am Agatha
(Avid Reader Press)

“A fascinating portrait of a woman torn between her single-minded artistic ambition and her yearning for love.”
–Kirkus

Caroline Tracey, Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History
(W. W. Norton)

“A perceptive, poetic ode to one of our planet’s most vital, and most overlooked, ecosystems.”
–Ben Goldfarb

Maile Chapman, The Spoil
(Graywolf)

“A shimmering, holographic, cerebral desert thriller of extremity, equal parts heart-rending and terrifying.”
–Alissa Nutting

Jo Marchant, In Search of Now: The Science of the Present Moment
(Liveright)

“This ambitious and beautifully written book gestures at something truly profound.”
–Kirkus

Luke Kennard, Black Bag
(Zando)

“A genre-defying, big-swing of a novel with a Kafkaesque premise.”
–Andrew Boryga

Jagadish Chandra Bose, trans. by Sumana Roy, The Man Who Made Plants Write
(Yale University Press)

“An exceptionally readable page-turner.”
–Jayson Maurice Porter