This is a list for everyone who said their resolution was to read more.
New year, new books! Reader, I hope you had a restful holiday season. I hope this list finds you recharged and ready to read all that 2021 has to offer. So far, we’re starting off strong with this group of book babies, the very first batch of the year.
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Michael Farris Smith, Nick
(Little, Brown and Company)
“Noir is as adaptable as a writer dares to make it, which Smith shows in this compelling prequel to The Great Gatsby.”
–Booklist
Una Mannion, A Crooked Tree
(Harper)
“Suspenseful, affecting, and disarmingly evocative of childhood and the not-so-distant era of the 1980s.”
–Kirkus
Anna North, Outlawed
(Bloomsbury)
“It’s exciting to read a Western tale that features such a range of women and queer characters.”
–Booklist
Karl Ove Knausgaard, tr. Martin Aitken, In the Land of the Cyclops
(Archipelago)
“In this dense and thought-provoking essay collection, Knausgaard once again displays his knack for raising profound questions about art and what it means to be human.”
–Publishers Weekly
Eley Williams, The Liar’s Dictionary
(Doubleday)
“Original and often very funny, The Liar’s Dictionary is an offbeat exploration of both the delights of language and its limitations.”
–The Sunday Times
André Gide, tr. Damion Searls, Marshlands
(NYRB)
“Ultimately, Marshlands is a novel about a man who wrestles with his faith in a single essential idea.”
–Full Stop
Ashley Audrain, The Push
(Pamela Dorman)
“Well thought out, carefully crafted, vividly realised and gripping, this is a clever concept novel that manipulates and exploits the fears and insecurities almost every mother has.”
–The Guardian
Gretel Ehrlich, Unsolaced
(Pantheon)
“A vigorous plea for responsible environmental stewardship and a treat for all fans of nature writing.”
–Kirkus
Peter Ho Davies, A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself
(Houghton Mifflin)
“A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself is a poetic meditation on the nature of regret and a couple’s enduring love through myriad difficulties.”
–BookPage
Koa Beck, White Feminism
(Atria)
“A clear analysis of the commodification of feminism from protest to brand.”
–Kirkus
Julia Claiborne Johnson, Better Luck Next Time
(Custom House)
“Johnson’s rollicking comedy sizzles, thanks to the immensely appealing voice of its aging narrator … [Better Luck Next Time] brims with the clever banter and farcical situations of a classic Capra film.”
–Publishers Weekly
Robert Jones, Jr., The Prophets
(G. P. Putnam’s Sons)
“[A] scintillating portrait of Black queerness and a bleak account of slavery in the antebellum South, captured in Jones’ lyrical yet incisive prose.”
–TIME
Mateo Askaripour, Black Buck
(Houghton Mifflin)
“A first novel that satirically lays out the wretched excesses of turn-of-the-21st-century capitalism as it both enriches and disfigures a bright young Black man’s coming-of-age.”
–Kirkus
Danielle McLaughlin, The Art of Falling
(Random House)
“McLaughlin’s descriptions of the art and its appeal have an almost mythic quality … and she has a gift for precise characterization.”
–Publishers Weekly
Todd Robert Petersen, Picnic in the Ruins
(Counterpoint)
“A fast-paced, highly entertaining hybrid of Tony Hillerman and Edward Abbey.”
–Kirkus
Michael Leviton, To Be Honest
(Abrams)
“A memoir that shows that while truth doesn’t always mean beauty, there’s something to be said for beautiful liars, too.”
–Kirkus
Tom Vanderbilt, Beginners
(Knopf)
“Journalist Vanderbilt (Traffic) chronicles his attempts to gain new skills in this charming celebration of lifelong learning.”
–Publishers Weekly
Daniel E. Lieberman, Exercised
(Pantheon)
“The book is full of helpful tips – you’ll build muscle faster by extending muscles under load rather than contracting them; the kind of chair you sit on doesn’t matter as long as you strengthen your back muscles and move regularly – conveyed in a humorous and sympathetic style.”
–The Guardian
