March 23, 2021, 7:50am
Rejoice! Spring has sprung! Tulips are popping up to say hello! I even saw an ice cream truck the other day. Plus, if you layer up and stay strictly in the sun, you might feel a semblance of warmth. Dare I say: it might start to feel like things are maybe going to be ok. Other things to make you feel closer to ok: books. Specifically these brand-new books hitting shelves today.
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Wayne Koestenbaum, The Cheerful Scapegoat
(Semiotext(e))
“These charmingly insouciant short stories by the noted critic, poet and essayist exhibit the same surreal whimsy that distinguishes his work in other formats.”
–The New York Times Book Review
Kikuko Tsumura, There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job
(Bloomsbury)
“Tsumura deftly handles work habits and relationships, stereotypes and expectations for success, all of which are set against a repetitious, unending search for what is valuable and valued.”
–Japan Times
Nicola DeRobertis-Theye, The Vietri Project
(Harper)
“An accomplished literary debut, notable for its delicate prose and sharply delineated characters … a captivating tale.”
–Kirkus
Gina Nutt, Night Rooms
(Two Dollar Radio)
“[A] startling collection of 18 essays ruminating on life experiences, cultural tropes and horror films, examining questions of gender, fear and grief.”
–Shelf Awareness
Andrew J. Graff, Raft of Stars
(Ecco)
“Nature is not mere backdrop here, but a rushing, thrummingly alive presence.”
–The Boston Globe
Andrea Lee, Red Island House
(Scribner)
“Lee approaches the broadly political and the minutely intimate with equally fine prose.”
–The Star Tribune
Jessie van Eerden, Call It Horses
(Dzanc)
“The reader experiences the ride in sensuous detail, from a closer vantage point than many authors can achieve.”
–Los Angeles Review of Books
Peter Swanson, Every Vow You Break
(William Morrow)
“Readers will bask in the creepiness of being stranded on a remote island, considering how far some might go to punish those who break sacred promises.”
–Library Journal
Juan Villoro, tr. Alfred MacAdam, Horizontal Vertigo
(Pantheon)
“An unparalleled portrait of a city in danger of growing past all reasonable limits.”
–Kirkus
Melanie Challenger, How to Be Animal
(Penguin Books)
“What How to Be Animal brings forth so beautifully is that impermanence is not a state confirmed by death.”
–Bookforum
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, When Women Invented Television
(Harper)
“In prose as charming as the women she writes about, she makes her subjects feel knowable.”
–The Boston Globe
Andrew Steele, Ageless
(Doubleday)
“Ageless is a rich and exciting exploration of that surprisingly intriguing topic we’d rather not talk about: old age.”
–The Irish Times
Alberto Angela, tr. Katherine Gregor, Cleopatra
(Harpervia)
“[Alberto Angela] effectively draws on previous scholarship, wading through legend and myth to get at the truth of what actually occurred.”
–Kirkus
Timothy Brennan, Places of Mind
(FSG)
“In immensely readable prose, Brennan flexes his expertise as one of the world’s leading authorities on Said.”
–Bookforum
Alexander Nemerov, Fierce Poise
(Penguin Press)
“Pairing vivid anecdotal biography with energetic descriptive analysis, the author recalibrates our perception of Frankenthaler’s undulating and entrancing canvases, on which she channeled in-the-moment feelings and celebrated the ‘beauty and power and glory’ of life.”
–Booklist
Kate Masur, Until Justice Be Done
(W. W. Norton)
“If this is a cleareyed book, it’s still a heartening one. Masur takes care to show not only the limitations of what was achieved at each step but also how even the smallest step could lead to another.”
–The New York Times Book Review
Daniel Heller-Roazen, Absentees
(Zone Books)
“…it’s a fundamental inquiry into the disposition among bodies, language, and politics.”
–4Columns