New month, new books! Book Light is Dandelion Chandelier’s curated list of the titles with publication dates in the coming month that we’re excited about. Our intrepid team has been exploring the most-anticipated new books scheduled for April 2018, and here’s what we’ve found.
As always, the month will bring works from intriguing debut authors as well as the return of some well-loved favorites. Several themes are prominent in the offerings this April: the voices of strong-willed and smart women are heard and celebrated in life and in fiction; the border between fiction and non-fiction proves to be more porous than one might imagine; advice about healthy eating abounds (no surprise, with beach season rapidly approaching); alarm bells sound about the fate of democratic institutions – plus, there’s a new political memoir so eagerly anticipated that it’s already on the best-seller list, over three weeks before its publication date.
Here’s our pick of the top new books – novels, essay collections, and non-fiction – that we cannot wait to read. You can pre-order them now if you like. And you might want to cancel any big plans for April – from what we can see, some of these are going to be un-put-downable.
Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith, the current Poet Laureate of the United States, is a collection of poems that excavate and assess the lasting wounds of America’s struggles with race and class, and a meditation on what it means to be a citizen, a mother, and an artist; one poem is comprised entirely of letter from African-Americans enlisted in the Civil War – April 3, 2018
Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley is the latest offering from one of our favorite essayists, and very much in the spirit of her prior two collections; in this one, we tag along as Crosley scales active volcanoes, crashes a shiva, plays herself on Gossip Girl, and befriends a group of swingers – April 3, 2018
See What Can Be Done: Essays, Criticism, and Commentary by Lorrie Moore is a collection of over 50 prose pieces by the prolific novelist and essayist; topics include the novels of Margaret Atwood and Nora Ephron, an O.J. Simpson documentary, the art of writing fiction, the state of race in America, the dangers of celebrity marriages, terrorism, and the historical imagination – April 3, 2018
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer is the story of Greer, a bright young woman who takes an interest in feminism after a frat boy gropes her at a party—and then gets away with even worse. Soon after, she has a fortuitous encounter with a famous feminist who later takes her under her wing and gives her a job as a speechwriter – April 3, 2018
Circe by Madeline Miller is the highly anticipated follow-up to her New York Times bestseller The Song of Achilles. The title character is the daughter of Helios; viewed as a threat, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she crosses paths with many well-known figures from mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus, Medea, and Odysseus – April 10, 2018
Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright is a personal and urgent examination of fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world, written by the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state; drawing on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and as a diplomat, Secretary Albright shows how economic, technological, and cultural factors are weakening the political center and empowering the extremes of right and left, and how contemporary leaders are employing many of the tactics used by Fascists in the 1920s and 30s – April 10, 2018
Heads of the Colored People: Stories by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. This collection of darkly funny stories examines the concept of black identity in the current era, and covers vast emotional terrain: from two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids’ backpacks, to a new mother and funeral singer filled with grief for the young black boys who have fallen victim to gun violence, to the teen who struggles between her upper middle class upbringing and her desire to fully connect with black culture – April 10, 2018
Dictionary Stories: Short Fictions and Other Findings by Jez Burrows is a collection of very short stories, each composed entirely of dictionary excerpts and example sentences. The approach yields a surprisingly wide range of literary genres: noir thrillers, fantasy epics, love stories, horror stories, eulogies, recipes, and drawing room murder mysteries—each one created “by flipping through the dictionary and knowing where to stop” – April 10, 2018
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey. The former FBI director shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades, exploring what good and ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions – April 17, 2018
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee. The author of best-selling novels The Queen of the Night and Edinburgh returns with a manifesto on the entangling of life, literature, and politics, and how the lessons learned from a life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him – April 17, 2018
The Only Story: A Novel by Julian Barnes. The Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending returns with the poignant story, set in England, of a May-December romance between a 19-year old single man and a 48-year old married woman; as the protagonist notes, reflecting on the affair, “first love fixes a life forever” – April 17, 2018
Eat a Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World by Sam Kass, former chef to the Obamas and White House food policy advisor, is a primer filled with practical advice on how to think about shopping and setting up your kitchen to make it easier to eat healthy foods – he also shares 90 delicious and easy recipes – April 17, 2018
You Think It, I’ll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld is the first collection of short fiction from the New York Times bestselling author of Prep, American Wife, and Eligible; in these 10 tales, married acquaintances play a strangely intimate game with devastating consequences; a shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate’s seemingly enviable life; a high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school, and a suburban mother fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie – April 24, 2018
Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering by Joanna Gaines and Marah Stets includes 125 down-home recipes—from breakfast, lunch, and dinner to small plates, snacks, and desserts—that together provide a modern selection of American classics from the owners of the eponymous restaurant in Waco, Texas – April 24, 2018
There you have it: 15 new volumes to add to your reading list next month. Enjoy!
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