Winter Books Preview, Part 2 (Feb.-Mar. releases)
In mid-December I posted my Winter Books Preview, highlighting seven upcoming releases I was looking forward to reading. Not surprisingly, in the several weeks, I discovered more February and March releases I wanted to draw readers’ attention to. Here are five more books I plan to read and think you might want to add to your own TBR list. In a few weeks, I’ll post my Spring Books Preview.
The Young of Other Animals – Chris Cander (Little a, Feb. 1)
Mayree is reeling after the death of their husband. She is dealing with grief, lack of employment, the loss of a close friend, and tensions with her daughter Paula, who is trying to cope with her own sense of abandonment. Their lives are thrown back into focus when Paula just manages to escape being assaulted. When they start receiving anonymous threats, they realize someone is trying to ruin their already faltering lives. As you might expect, family secrets are coming back to haunt them as they try to rebuild their relationship and move forward with their lives. The Young of Other Animals weaves three narratives together: a suspenseful crime drama, a complicated mother-daughter relationship, and an examination of intergenerational trauma. Cander’s two previous books, A Gracious Neighbor, The Weight of a Piano, Whisper Hollow, and 11 Stories, are worth a look too. Cander’s bio is a little different than the usual writer. She is a former firefighter and fitness competitor who holds a 4th dan in taekwondo and is a certified ICSU Women’s Defensive Tactics Instructor.
Leaving – Roxana Robinson (Norton, Feb. 13)
Decades after their college love affair ended, Sarah and Warren bump into each other. She is divorced and living outside New York City, with a life focused on her career and children. He is married and living in Boston. Suffice it to say, their chemistry remains intact and is instantly ignited. They have built lives that appear mostly enviable from the outside. But they have their reasons for proceeding with an affair, despite the significant risks to their families. Roxana Robinson is an astute observer of family life and personal passions. Kirkus Reviews says Leaving is “elegantly structured and written, shimmering with feeling and truth. A triumph.” Robinson’s previous books include an acclaimed biography of Georgia O’Keeffe, absorbing novels like Sparta (highly recommended), Dawson’s Fall, and Cost, and three short story collections.
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop – Hwang Bo-Reum (Shanna Tan, translator) (Bloomsbury, Feb. 20)
If you liked Gabrielle Zevin’s heartwarming novel The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, this Korean bestseller may be the book for you. Yeongju has followed the rules of Korean life, going to college, marrying, and building a successful career. But she’s unfulfilled. When it all falls apart, she decides to follow her dream and open a bookstore in a funky neighborhood of Seoul. Hwang Bo-Reum’s debut novel is a slice-of-life story about some of the customers who frequent Yeongju’s bookstore, including a barista and a writer. Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop is about finding yourself and your people and the power of books to bring people together. It’s just the warm hug of a book you might be looking for in late winter.
Anita de Monte Laughs Last – Xochitl Gonzalez (Flatiron Books, March 5)
Xochitl Gonzalez burst onto the literary scene with Olga Dies Dreaming, which was named a Best of 2022 by The New York Times, TIME, Kirkus, Washington Post, and NPR and was awarded the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize in Fiction. Her sophomore effort, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, is the story of two young women in the New York City art world separated by a generation. Anita de Monte was a promising artist in 1985 when she was found dead and became something of a posthumous legend. Raquel is working on her art history thesis when she learns about de Monte, whose life contains several similarities that intrigue Raquel, including being Latina and in relationships with well-connected men, struggling to fit in with the more privileged people in the art world. The narrative alternates between the two women and times, probing creativity and commerce, fame and failure, and love and loss.
Memory Piece – Lisa Ko (Riverhead Books, March 19)
Lisa Ko’s debut, The Leavers (2018), was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. She returns with Memory Piece, in which three Asian-American friends pursue their ambitious dreams in the 1990s with varying results. Giselle is a performance artist, Jackie works as a coder, and Ellen is a community activist fighting gentrification in her neighborhood. Each of these young women faces personal and professional changes and challenges they didn’t expect. Their friendship evolves as the art, tech, and activism scenes, and their lives, change dramatically.