Tove Ditlevsen, Vanessa Hua, Barry Walters, and more: 20 new books out today!

Last week was fiction heavy, and today we have a slew of the other side of the coin: many nonfiction riches await. Isaac Fitzerald’s study of Johnny Appleseed is available, as well as Barry Walter’s comprehensive survey of LGBTQ music over the past 60 years. Essays, and histories, and memories all abound. In fiction, a new reissue by Elaine Kraf is out today, as well as Vanessa Hua’s novel, Coyoteland. Read on for the full list, and happy Tuesday!

*

Isaac Fitzgerald, American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed
(Knopf)

“I loved this book. It felt like hanging out with a friend.”
–Ethan Hawke

Vanessa Hua, Coyoteland
(Flatiron)

“A tremendous, mesmerizing gift from this one-of-a-kind storyteller.”
–R.O. Kwon

Barry Walters, Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969-2000
(Viking)

“Uplifting, endlessly entertaining, and informative.”
–Kirkus

Elaine Kraf, Memory House
(Modern Library)

“Readers will find it an impressive exploration of an artist’s inner life.”
–Publishers Weekly

Rick Ross, Renaissance of a Boss: Notes From a Creative Reawakening
(Hanover Square Press)

“A powerful guide, packed with his tools and secrets to staying inspired.”
–From the Publisher

Bindu Bansinath, Men Like Ours
(Bloomsbury)

“Bansinath is a gifted writer of close quarters, revealing in spare prose just how unsightly and how beautiful people can be up close.”
–Brandon Taylor

Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything
(Harper Business)

“A highly personal portrait of what it feels like to stand on the edge of technological transformation.”
–Kirkus

Keith Waldrop, Light While There is Light
(NYRB)

“An instant eccentric classic.”
–Jaimy Gordon

Guy Cuthbertson, Lady C: The Long, Sensational Life of Lady Chatterly’s Lover
(Yale University Press)

“Readers will come away with a greater appreciation for the novel.”
–Publishers Weekly

Uchenna Awoke, A Siege of Owls
(Catapult)

“Awoke weaves his immersive and lyrical tale with folklore and vivid scenes of real-world violence. This one hits hard.”
–Publishers Weekly

H.W. Brands, American Patriarch: The Life of George Washington
(Doubleday)

“Brands documents just how extraordinary—and essential—George Washington was and remains.”
–Justin Vaughn

Annakeara Stinson, Nerve Damage
(Knopf)

“Stinson’s voice, her prose, is a feast. I genuinely don’t understand how it all works so well.”
–Kaveh Akbar

Maïa Hruska, trans. by Sam Taylor, Kafkaesque: From Jorge Luis Borges to Primo Levi, Ten Writers Who Translated Kafka and Transformed Twentieth-Century Literature
(Ecco)

“A thoughtful, digressive and at times sensuous production. It thrives on Kafka’s sheer variety.”
–Literary Review

Louise Wallace, Ash
(Mariner)

“As poetic as it is experimental, Ash is one woman’s bold attempt to create a novel way to talk about the unprecedented.”
–Katie Yee

Devin Johnston, Bright Thorn: Poems 2000-2026
(FSG)

“Historical, philosophical, closely observational, and rooted evenly in the deep poetic past and the daily rhythms of American life, these poems open the world to imaginative scrutiny.”
–From the publisher

Tove Ditlevsen, trans. by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell, Vilhelm’s Room
(FSG)

“Aching and accomplished … A haunting and deeply felt portrayal of intimate catastrophe.”
–Publishers Weekly

Dimitry Elias Léger, Death of the Soccer God
(MCD)

“Dimitry Elias Léger delivers a radiant, raucous, and unforgettable novel.”
–Rowan Ricardo Phillips

Adrian Goldsworthy, Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry that Shaped Ancient Greece
(Basic Books)

“A propulsive, large-scale history of ancient Greece, written with an authority to rival Thucydides.”
–Kirkus

Sarah Wang, New Skin
(Little Brown)

“Mirthfully and mercilessly abject, New Skin is a page-turner that feels equal parts cinematic romp and serrated analysis of some of the most important issues of our day.”
–Maggie Nelson

Emma Garman, The Kindness of Strangers
(Summit Books)

“Vivid and entertaining, and powered by such a wonderfully dry wit.”
–The Times