There are many exciting new books from renowned authors in pril. One of the highlights is Jennifer Egan’s long-awaited novel about her sibling. The Goon Squad VisitEmily St. John Mandel once again transforms a pandemic in to fiction. Ocean Vuong’s second poetry collection will leave readers breathless, while comedian Jessi Klein’s essays promise stressed parents a laugh. The other titles are about deaf culture, and they introduce determined nuns.
These are the top 12 books you should read this April.
Candy HouseJennifer Egan, April 5)
Jennifer Egan’s 2010 novel The Goon Squad VisitPulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, it captured the imagination of readers and impressed them with its intellect. Today, more than 10 years later, many characters from the novel are back in The Candy HouseThis novel is described as a sibling novel, but can also be read as an independent work. It centers on a new technology, “Own Your Unconscious,” that allows people to save and share all their memories. Egan uses tweets and emails from the future to illustrate what happens when we have access to each other’s most private thoughts.
Get it now Candy House Bookshop | Amazon
Black Lives and Making White Power and Wealth: Of Blood and Sweat, Clyde W. Ford (April 5)
Black Americans have long helped white people get—and stay—wealthy, but instead of their fair share, they’ve received brutality in return. That’s the central argument that Clyde W. Ford, a psychotherapist and the author of Think BlackIn this book, Ford explains what it means. Ford traces the history of the period between 1619 when the first African enslaved arrived in Virginia and the close of Reconstruction in 1877. Ford illustrates how Black labor was essential in fields like politics, medicine and law enforcement and insists that reparations should be made.
Get it now Blood and Sweat Bookshop | Amazon
Let’s Not Do That Again, Grant Ginder (April 5)
Nancy Harrison will be running for Senate. Her biggest obstacle is her adult children Greta (and Nick) Greta is making headlines for hurling a Champagne bottle through a Paris restaurant window during a political riot, which doesn’t exactly help Nancy’s image. Nick, who’s floundering in his own way, writing a musical based on the works of Joan Didion, accompanies his mother to France to bring Greta home and save the campaign. Ginder—author of These are the People we Hate on Weddings—has inhabited the world he’s writing about: he spent time as a congressional intern and White House speechwriter, experiences that help this bighearted family comedy shine.
Get it now Let’s Not Do That Again Bookshop | Amazon
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel (April 5)
Sea of Tranquility introduces readers to Olive, the author of a best-selling pandemic novel—a rather meta plot point, given that Emily St. John Mandel herself is the author of a hugely popular (and prescient) pandemic novel, Station Eleven. Olive can be jumped from Vancouver’s forest (1912) to the 2203 lunar colony. Mandel explores the concept of parallel universes, and creates a puzzle that surprises us all about reality and time. Her past works will still be enjoyed by her longtime admirers.
Get it now Sea of Tranquility Bookshop | Amazon
True Biz, Sara Nović (April 5)
Sara Nović’s second novel, following The Girl at War It takes place in a school for deaf students, where two of the life’s headmistresses intersect. Charlie is one of the teenagers forced by her parents, to have a cochlear Implant, controversially used for hearing sounds. Her hearing family never allowed her to learn American Sign Language—which is starkly opposite the experience her classmate, Austin, had growing up with deaf parents. In this story of love, friendship, justice, and protest that unfolds when Charlie and Austin are reported missing by their community,
Get it now True Biz Bookshop | Amazon
MemphisTara M. Stringfellow, April 5)
Tara M. Stringfellow’s moving debut novel follows three generations of a Southern Black family from the 1930s through the early 2000s. Joan, her sister and mother flee their violent father when she was 10 years old and seek refuge in a Memphis family home. It’s the same place where, 50 years earlier, Joan’s grandfather was lynched after becoming the city’s first Black detective. Stringfellow creates characters that are worth rooting for and switches between voices and years to show how trauma, anger and love can be passed down.
Get it now Memphis Bookshop | Amazon
Time is a motherOcean Vuong (April 5).
It’s been six years since Ocean Vuong’s debut poetry collection, Night Sky and Exit WoundsThe book was eventually published. A haunting and lyrical novel was published in his interim. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.He returns now with 27 poems. Many are infused with pain, as Vuong grapples with his mother’s death. Some examine identity, race and sexual orientation. Time is a motherIt is both poignant and stunning.
Get it now Time is a mother Bookshop | Amazon
Building a Nervous System, Margo Jefferson (April 12)
Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Margo Jefferson—whose memoir Negroland was published in 2015—reflects on some of her most intimate memories in Building a Nervous System. By combining memoir and criticism, she examines how Black artists like Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald shaped her and their impact on race and class. Jefferson excels in deconstructing American culture and is known for her honest self-examination.
Get it now Building a Nervous System Bookshop | Amazon
Sisters of Mokama – The pioneering women who brought hope and healing to India through their work with the Mokama sisters, Jyoti Thottam (April 12)
Sisters of MokamaThe inspiring tale of six Kentucky nuns that built a hospital in an indigent part of India back in 1947 when cholera was rampant, is the inspirational story of this group. Soon, the nuns opened a nursing school—and the mother of New York TimesEditor Jyoti Thomastam, who formerly worked for TIME, was among the women who had studied at TIME. It was a time when Indian women were not allowed to leave their homes without being accompanied by a man. The opportunity to study at the hospital was a lifesaver. Thottam interviewed 60 people to experience the same determination as those who served as nurses or doctors at the hospital during its first years.
Get it now Sisters of Mokama Bookshop | Amazon
A Tale About The Trouble with HappinessTove Ditlevsen. Translated by Michael Favala Goldman (April 19)
Tove Ditlevsen was a Danish author who passed away in 1976. But her legacy is preserved with this collection. Its title is Happiness: The Trouble with Happiness, suggests, this isn’t a happy read; it focuses mostly on relationship turmoil. In one story, a husband chases away his wife’s pet cat because he feels threatened by her love for it; in another, a tyrant mother oppresses her children. Both alienation and manipulation are popular themes. Readers who enjoyed Ditlevsen’s autobiographicalThe Copenhagen Trilogy will appreciate these stories—they’re unsettling, but beautifully crafted.
Get it now Happiness: The Trouble with Happiness Bookshop | Amazon
Forbidden City, Vanessa Hua (April 19)
In 1960s China—during the violent Cultural Revolution—a fictional teenage girl named Mei is recruited by the Communist Party and drawn into the inner life of the Chairman leading the upheaval. She becomes his confidant and romantic partner, constantly fighting off jealous young women who’d like to take her place, including the Chairman’s wife. Mei loses her faith when Mei gets assigned a critical political mission and is forced to take difficult decisions. Forbidden CityThe novel, which is richly researched and captivating, offers new perspectives on an era that was turbulent.
Get it now Forbidden City Bookshop | Amazon
I’ll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife and Motherhood, Jessi Klein (April 26)
Jessi Klein, a comedian delivers the necessary laughter for parents who are just starting to get out of the pandemic. Her second collection of essays, “The,” features the following: Amy Schumer writer grapples with the humiliations and possibilities of midlife and motherhood, from impossible car seats to equally befuddling “Mama” necklaces. Funny essay titles aside, Among the standouts: “Eulogy for My Feet,” “Your Husband Will Remarry Five Minutes After You Die,” and “Listening to Beyoncé in the Parking Lot of Party City.”
Get it now I’ll Show Myself Out Bookshop | Amazon
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