May 3, 2022, 4:06am
A new month means new books! May I recommend some to you today? From celebrity memoirs to reissued classics, from stellar short stories to sparkling debuts—this week’s book bounty brings a little something for everyone.
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Joanne Greenberg, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
(Penguin)
“A rare and wonderful insight into the dark kingdom of the mind.”
–Chicago Tribune
Ali Smith, Companion Piece
(Pantheon)
“Like Smith’s other novels, Companion Piece is a formally dazzling story, constructed from a découpage of funny, messy, beautifully disparate elements.”
–Esquire
Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures
(Ecco)
“The best books about grief find a way to illuminate the darkness of loss, and Remarkably Bright Creatures offers a masterclass.”
–Marie Claire
Colin Barrett, Homesickness
(Grove Press)
“Shot through with dark humor, pitch-perfect dialogue and a signature freshness that makes life palpable on the page … Homesickness is graced with an original, lingering beauty.”
–The New York Times Book Review
Hernan Diaz, Trust
(Riverhead)
“[A] remarkably accessible treatise on the power of fiction. This unquestionably smart and sophisticated novel not only mirrors truth, but helps us to better understand it.”
–The Boston Globe
Monica Ali, Love Marriage
(Scribner)
“A topically freighted tale of premarital tension told with easy-reading propulsion, Love Marriage has the air of a surefire hit.”
–The Guardian
Pyae Moe Thet War, You’ve Changed: Fake Accents, Feminism, and Other Comedies from Myanmar
(Catapult)
“Readers are gifted a funny, insightful, and beautifully written collection of essays … A must for your bookshelf … Incisive and exciting.”
–Shondaland
Mieko Kawakami, tr. Sam Bett and David Boyd, All the Lovers in the Night
(Europa)
“The author dazzles with her exploration of emotions … An invigorating and empowering portrait. It’s a winner.”
–Publishers Weekly
Elizabeth Day, Magpie
(Simon & Schuster)
“Day’s cleverness lies in fashioning from these ingredients a pacy, stylish thriller in which suspense is accompanied by fist-pumping feminism and, perhaps toughest of all, hope.”
–The Guardian
Bill Gates, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic
(Knopf)
“Passionate but never preachy, Gates delivers an expert, well-reasoned, and robust appeal for the world to unite in averting upcoming pandemics.”
–Booklist
Lori Zabar, Zabar’s: A Family Story
(Schocken)
“…the many devoted patrons of this legendary food purveyor will find themselves sated.”
–Publishers Weekly
Michelle Morgan, When Marilyn Met the Queen
(Pegasus)
“This was a good read, especially for anyone interested in the heyday of Hollywood with all it’s dirty little secrets.”
–The New York Journal of Books
N. Scott Momaday, Dream Drawings: Configurations of a Timeless Kind
(Harper Perennial)
“A collection that celebrates language, invention, humanity, and the natural world.”
–Publishers Weekly
Courtney Maum, The Year of the Horses
(Tin House)
“A touching and insightful memoir of depression and healing.”
–The Millions
Jazmina Barrera, tr. Christina Macsweeney, Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy and Earthquakes
(Two Lines Press)
“Barrera offers a moving study of pregnancy, family, art, and loss in this showstopping essay … [her] voice is meditative, bolstered by poetic turns of phrase, precise language, and fresh metaphors.”
–Publishers Weekly
Lillian Fishman, Acts of Service
(Hogarth)
“Fishman’s alluring debut poses questions about sex, sexuality, and power via the story of a young woman’s exploration of desire. Smooth and smart.”
–Publishers Weekly
Patrick McCabe, Poguemahone
(Biblioasis)
“Poguemahone, living up to its author’s reputation, is daring, studded with brilliance, raucous and exhausting. It might overstay its welcome, but you’ll remember its visit.”
–The New York Times Book Review
Minnie Driver, Managing Expectations
(HarperOne)
“…it reflects an actor’s close attention to strange, exasperating, heartbreaking behavior all around her, conveyed with wit and poise.”
–USA Today
Emily Bingham, My Old Kentucky Home
(Knopf)
“…an invigorating and eye-opening cultural history.”
–Publishers Weekly
Abi Ishola-Ayodeji, Patience Is a Subtle Thief
(Harpervia)
“A poignant, revealing, and rueful tale of how much the political can affect the personal.”
–Kirkus
Antonia Fraser, The Case of the Married Woman
(Pegasus)
“An intelligently illuminating biography and cultural history.”
–Kirkus
Will Jawando, My Seven Black Fathers
(FSG)
“This book is a clarion call to families and communities to provide crucial support to young people, particularly young Black men.”
–Booklist
Julia Glass, Vigil Harbor
(Pantheon)
“Deftly weaving together eight intersecting stories, Glass offers fiction steeped in current events that her loyal followers will appreciate.”
–Library Journal
John Waters, Liarmouth
(FSG)
“[A] hilariously sleazy story of a con artist in which the villains are good guys, the good guys are silly, and everybody gets down and dirty.”
–Publishers Weekly
Sy Montgomery, The Hawk’s Way
(Atria)
“Montgomery offers a good amount of stimulating information about raptor behavior, a primer on the language of falconry, and some surprising insights into what is thought to be a hawk’s mindset.”
–Kirkus
