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Big Books of the Week

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper; LJ starred review), leads holds this week.

Other titles in demand include:

Countdown by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (Little, Brown)

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond (Crown)

Earth's the Right Place for Love by Elizabeth Berg (Random)

Smolder by Laurell K. Hamilton (Berkley)

These books and others publishing the week of Mar. 20, 2023 are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Four Indie Next picks publish this week:

Flux by Jinwoo Chong (Melville House)

“If I had to choose one word to describe Flux, it would be sharp. The way that Chong wrote this brilliant book still amazes me. With plot twists so subtle you’re not even fully aware you just encountered one. This kept me on the edge of my seat.”—Libby Monaghan, Twice Told Tales, McPherson, KS

Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin (Henry Holt)

“A slim novel, but there is so much here that I just love—beautiful language, devasting subject, and exquisite structure—there is something urgent about the way Pin tells this story. She’s created something special!”—Julie Slavinsky, Warwick’s, La Jolla, CA

American Mermaid by Julia Langbein (Doubleday; LJ starred review)

“American Mermaid is a total charmer of a novel. A crackling satire of the contemporary book market, and a winning portrait of an artist as a young woman, American Mermaid rides a fine line between hilarity and heartbreak.”—John Francisconi, P&T Knitwear Bookstore, New York, NY

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash (Celadon)

“When a family takes in a young British girl during World War II, she changes their lives and they change hers. Summers on a Maine island add to the wonder of the story. Told over decades and on both sides of the ocean, this story captured me.”—Sue Boucher, The Cottage Book Shop, Glen Arbor, MI

In The Media

People’s book of the week is The Kingdom of Prep: The Inside Story of the Rise and (Near) Fall of J.Crew by Maggie Bullock (Dey Street). Also getting attention are Lone Women by Victor LaValle (One World), and The Fun Widow’s Book Tour by Zoe Fishman (Morrow). There is a Q&A with Michael Schulman about the “scandals, feuds, and surprises” in his book, Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears (HarperCollins; LJ starred review), and an Oscars  and party recap.

There is a feature on Bob Odenkirk, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama (Random), who is collaborating with his daughter on a new children’s book, Zilot & Other Important Rhymes (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), due out in October. There is also a feature on elite runner, Kara Goucher, The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team, written with Mary Pilon (Gallery).

Plus, Ronnie Woo, Did You Eat Yet?: Craveable Recipes from an All-American Asian Chef (Harvest), Gesine Bullock–Prado, My Vermont Table: Recipes for All (Six) Seasons (Countryman Pr.), and Katie Parla, Food of the Italian Islands: Recipes From the Sunbaked Beaches, Coastal Villages and Rolling Hillsides of Sicily, Sardinia and Beyond (Parla Publishing), share recipes. 

Reviews

The Washington Post reviews The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science by Alan Lightman (Pantheon): “The author’s attempt to justify a merely spiritual rather than religious worldview does not fare well, for the simple reason that modern science has emerged out of a theological womb in which belief in a personal cosmic mind behind all that exists provides the common thread.”

NYT reviews Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin (Henry Holt): “What emerges is something special—a polyvocal novel, an essay on inherited trauma and a quiet metafiction about telling stories we don’t own”; and The Nursery by Szilvia Molnar (Pantheon): “Molnar’s book, with its nameless protagonist and oppressive non-eventfulness and cool prose, suggests the work of a number of contemporaries—Ottessa Moshfegh, Sheila Heti—but in the end it’s Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ that’s the most apt shelfmate.“

Vulture reviews Biography of X by Catherine Lacey (Farrar; LJ starred review): “Under all the narrative scaffolding, the moments in Biography of X that land most reliably have to do with long-suffering C.M., whose mourning—she is ‘romanced by grief,’ she says—turns to horror as she unpeels her wife’s layers of secrecy and manipulation.”

Briefly Noted

The April LibraryReads list is out featuring top pick, In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune (Tor; LJ starred review). 

NYT profiles author Catherine Lacey and highlights her new novel, Biography of X (Farrar; LJ starred review). NYT also features Jeannette Walls, with a preview of her forthcoming book, Hang the Moon (Scribner), out next week. 

LA Times has an interview with Mona Simpson, whose new book, Commitment (Knopf), arrives this week. 

Time talks with Alison Roman about her new cookbook, Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook (Clarkson Potter), and overcoming adversity. 

LitHub has a cover reveal of K-Ming Chang’s new novel, Organ Meats (One World), due out in October.

Author Florence Hazrat, An Admirable Point: A Brief History of the Exclamation Mark! (David R. Godine), offers a perspective on emphatic punctuation, at The Washington Post. 

Entertainment Weekly previews Spring 2023 books. 

USA Today shares 5 books for the week.

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books this week. 

NYT highlights new romance novels. 

Authors On Air

Matthew Desmond discusses his new book, Poverty, by America (Crown), with NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. 

CBS Sunday Morning talks with Ari Shapiro about his new memoir, The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening (HarperOne; LJ starred review).

Homa Dashtaki shares stories and recipes from her cookbook, Yogurt & Whey: Recipes of an Iranian Immigrant Life (Norton), on NPR’s Morning Edition.

PBS Canvas explores how #BookTok drives book sales.

Students respond to Vermont State University’s plans for a digital-only academic library, on NPR’s Morning Edition. 

C.J. Tudor’s first crime novel, The Chalk Man (Ballantine), will be adapted for the screen. Deadline reports. 

Tessa Bailey, Unfortunately Yours (Avon), visits Tamron Hall today. 

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