15 books to read heading into spring
The books in March take readers on a trip all over the world.
Zibby Owens is the author of "Blank" and "Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature," owner of Zibby's Bookshop, host of podcast "Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books," and founder/CEO of Zibby Media which includes boutique publishing house Zibby Books and the community of @zibbyreaders. Zibby is a regular contributor to "GMA."
The books coming out in March take us all over the world from Turks & Caicos and L.A. to Canada, Indiana, and Rome. And yet the themes — love, friendship, memory, ambition, fate — pervade the narratives. Dip into these titles to learn about grief, privilege, motherhood, publishing, dating, food, crime, and weddings.
'Here After' by Amy Lin
In this slim, architectural slice of loss, debut memoirist Amy Lin writes into the heart of grief after losing her young husband. Poetic, sparse, and impactful, "Here After" has already received three-star reviews and continues to move readers. It looks at grief not analytically but from inside the storm. Raw. Angry. Confused. Unparalleled. Original. Editor's note: Owens' publishing house Zibby Books published "Here After."
'Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin' by Andre Dubus III
Oprah's book club pick, author of House of Sand and Fog Andrew Dubus III, writes beautifully across a range of topics in his reported pieces and essays from wrestling with privilege, deciding whether or not to keep his gun, masculinity itself, and the role of memory in writing.
'Bye, Baby' by Carola Lovering
Would you ever steal a baby? Of course not, you think. But: not so fast. Billie West hears her best friend Cassie's shrieks from the apartment above after just discovering her baby has vanished. But then why is Billie holding Cassie's baby herself?! Could she have done it without realizing?
In this captivating, page-turning tome, Carola Lovering once again pins us in place while we frantically read to find out how exactly this could've happened… and if it could happen to us.
'Expiration Dates' by Rebecca Serle
What if you could know exactly when every relationship was going to end? In New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Serle's latest novel, "Expiration Dates," Daphne Bell has such a gift. But then she gets a slip of paper without an end date -- only with a name. What will happen next?!
In this reflection on true love and destiny, Serle waves her paintbrush in the swirls of romantic love to craft an immersive, thought-provoking good time.
'Wandering Stars' by Tommy Orange
An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Tommy Orange received the 2019 American Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for "There, There." Now he is back with "Wandering Stars" which examines the aftermath and lasting legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. His prose is simply exquisite.
'After Annie' by Anna Quindlen
On the first page, mother of four and wife Annie Brown dies in her kitchen in the midst of a humdrum meal. No one's life will ever be the same — not her best friend Annemarie, not her husband Bill, not her kids, particularly not her 14-year-old daughter Ali. Anna Quindlen is a literary legend. Her latest novel shows us why-- not that we needed a reminder.
Her deft sculpting of intimate moments, her incisive excavation of emotions, and her beautiful, accessible prose make her writing second to none.
'Blank' by Zibby Owens
In podcaster, author, and publisher Zibby Owens's first novel, Pippa Jones is a former bestselling author three years late handing in her next book when her son suggests she just hand in the book totally empty: blank. What follows is a playful romp through the publishing world, the L.A. scene, and one woman's hectic life. It's really about how Pippa's entire world is upended and reassembled over six days with the help of her kids, friends, family, and some unexpected players.
A quick read, "Blank" is fun, entertaining, and a wink to the publishing world designed to leave readers thinking just a bit more critically about the books being served to them. Editor's note: Owens is the author of "Blank."
'I Promise It Won't Always Hurt Like This: 18 Assurances on Grief' by Clare Mackintosh
Bestselling thriller author Clare Mackintosh shares her devastating experiences of losing her five-week-old son and her father. She wrote this slim volume as an antidote to the countless books concerned loved ones gave her when she was grieving — which actually didn't help. Instead, Mackintosh compiled a series of stories and takeaways designed to help everyone. (We hope it helped her, too.)
'In a Not So Perfect World' by Neely Tubati Alexander
Sloane Cooper promises her prospective bosses at a video game design firm that she'll stay single if she snags the job she's applying for. But wouldn't you know it, right after agreeing to that, she gets invited to Turks & Caicos by her hot neighbor. She just has to pretend she's his girlfriend. Why not?! Sloane agrees to go thinking she can design her own game while away, but can she really promise to stay single?!
'I Finally Bought Some Jordans: Essays' by Michael Arceneaux
Michael Arceneaux specializes in opining on race, class, sexuality, and more which he does in this series of essays, discussing a "patriarchal, heteronormative society." Are enough doors open to Black creatives? Is it okay to go home? Has social media made dating any easier? Arceneaux writes through these questions in his characteristic whip-smart way.
'Piglet' by Lottie Hazell
Watch out: you will get hungry reading this book. Make sure you have supplies nearby. Author Lottie Hazell wrote an entire dissertation about food writing and then went and wrote a novel with food as a backdrop and raison d'être. While the story follows a woman whose husband soon leaves her — yet she continues cooking for him anyway — it's really about our relationship to food, ourselves, our dreams, and more.
Hazell cooked every meal in the book to accurately write about it, hence the food dreamland.
'American Sycamore' by Charles Kenney
When Michelle Pfeiffer recommends a book from her bed on Instagram, how can we not wonder why!? This novel by journalist Charles Kenney, brother to New York Times bestselling author John Kenney, traces the friendships among three boomers, the impact of a prostate cancer diagnosis, the changing times, and institutional power in this important work.
'Watch Where They Hide' by Tamron Hall
Jordan Manning is back, in former reporter and talk show host Tamron Hall's second novel which you won't be able to put down. Told against the ticking time clock of Jordan's potential anchor fill-in gig at the station, this propulsive story centers around Jordan's search for a mother who has disappeared, the sister who leads the chase, and the clues left scattered about.
Based in part on Hall's own horrific loss of her sister to an abusive partner, "Watch Where They Hide" is about how and why to be successful and the cost of all of it.
'Never Been Better' by Leanne Toshiko Simpson
Three friends on the psych ward find themselves in Turks & Caicos when two of them, Matt and Misa, host their wedding festivities. But Dee, the third in the trio, isn't a fan of how the happy couple won't admit where they met. Plus, she wants to be with Matt, too. Is it time to disrupt everything and reveal… all? Leanne Toshiko Simpson lives with bipolar disorder herself; writing this book was actually interrupted by her suicide attempt.
Simpson's prior hospitalization informs the narrative of this unexpectedly funny but also sad but also uplifting tale of illness, recovery, and true love.
'Finding Margaret Fuller' by Allison Pataki
Multiple-time New York Times bestselling author Allison Pataki returns after her immensely popular "The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post with Finding Margaret Fuller" about another bold, brilliant woman, this time feminist and journalist Margaret Fuller. In the 1830s, Margret Fuller goes to Concord, Massachusetts, when Ralph Waldo Emerson invites her, and ends up becoming a role model to Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration to Nathaniel Hawthorne, and a friend to Henry David Thoreau.
She ventures to Boston and becomes the first woman allowed to study at Harvard; then she becomes the first female foreign news correspondent; finally heading to Italy to take up with a Roman count. She changed the course of history — and now here's hers which you won't believe you didn't already know.
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