Deep Cuts, by Holly Brickley
In the year 2000, an aspiring music writer meets a future indie rock star. Their witty banter about songs sounds like Nora Ephron for Pitchfork readers. Can this woman and man just be friends? Holly Brickley’s lyrical debut novel should rocket up the (bookseller) charts.
Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy
Why We Wrote This
The books our reviewers liked best this month include an insightful biography of Yoko Ono, a delightful memoir about bonding with a baby wild hare, and a murder mystery set in Dust Bowl-era Nebraska.
Charlotte McConaghy delivers a captivating story about a tight-knit family tending the lighthouse on a remote subantarctic island. When a woman washes ashore during a tempest, wounded and unconscious, the family’s fragile equilibrium cracks. Multiple perspective shifts, foggy motives, and rising tides propel the plot, but it’s the beauty of the natural world that thunders loudest.
The Dream Hotel, by Laila Lalami
In Laila Lalami’s unnerving speculative novel, archivist Sara Hussein is detained for having a problematic “risk score” due to violent dreams. Baffled, desperate, and increasingly enraged, Sara builds alliances, battles hopelessness, and strains to demonstrate her innocence in the face of institutional suspicion and weaponized data. Privacy never sounded so good. (Read the author Q&A.)
The Antidote, by Karen Russell
In Karen Russell’s extraordinary new novel, each Dust Bowl-hammered denizen of Uz, Nebraska, is searching: for clues to a mother’s murder, for signs of a son never known, for reasons a solitary farm escaped a storm’s swipe. Russell brings heft and intelligence to her characters – and a critical eye to the erasure, burden, and joys of memory.
The Paris Express, by Emma Donoghue
Emma Donoghue recounts a thrilling train ride involving a spectrum of 1890s society. Her luxurious prose and intimate storytelling propel readers along, drawing them into the interconnectedness of humanity.
Kate & Frida, by Kim Fay
Kim Fay’s second delightful epistolary novel after “Love & Saffron” pairs effervescent 20-something pen pals, Kate and Frida, whose letters travel from Seattle to Paris and beyond. Along with the desire to become writers, they share a passion for books and food. Their embrace of joy, especially in dark times, sends a message of hope.
One Good Thing, by Georgia Hunter
Best friends Esti and Lili find their families targeted by Italian leader Benito Mussolini’s racial laws when Germany invades and occupies northern Italy. Georgia Hunter’s novel is a sweeping, emotional tale. Through resistance, dangers, and separation, the characters prove their steadfastness.
Raising Hare: A Memoir, by Chloe Dalton
“Raising Hare” is a welcome addition to a growing shelf of books about the solace of forging unexpected connections with wild creatures. During the pandemic lockdown, Chloe Dalton rescues a newborn hare abandoned in a grassy field. The book chronicles the transformative, interspecies trust that grows between Dalton and the hare. (Read the full review.)
Yoko: A Biography, by David Sheff
David Sheff was the last journalist to interview Yoko Ono and John Lennon before Lennon’s 1980 murder, and he and Ono subsequently became friends. His engaging and intimate biography provides a full picture of the woman unfairly accused of breaking up the Beatles, highlighting her long, provocative career as an avant-garde artist.
Taking Manhattan, by Russell Shorto
Bestselling historian Russell Shorto tells the fascinating story of the Dutch’s handover of Manhattan Island to the English in 1664. His vivid account emphasizes New York’s roots in pluralism and a capitalist ethos while also tracing the roles of slavery and the dispossession of Native Americans in the city’s founding.
