It’s time to spring into a good book (or ten)! With publishing powerhouses like Meg Wolitzer, Paula McLain, and Ruth Ware releasing new novels this season, it was difficult to narrow down our most anticipated reads, but these are not to be missed.
Girls Burn Brighter
A story of enduring female friendship with a gritty twist. From poverty to immigration to human trafficking, this debut novel doesn’t shy away from heavy topics.
Whiskey & Ribbons
Told from three different perspectives, this novel about tragedy and healing explores the effect of a police officer’s death on his family in contemporary Louisville.
The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror
From The Little Mermaid to The Velveteen Rabbit, get ready for Mallory Ortberg to ruin — erhm, improve — your favorite childhood fairytales with an infusion of “everyday horror.”
Tangerine: A Novel
When Alice moves to Morocco in 1956, she hasn’t spoken to Lucy in more than a year… until Lucy shows up in Tangier. What happened to the two women to drive them apart? And which one is telling the truth?
America Is Not the Heart
This multigenerational saga features the De Vera family, who emigrate from the Philippines to northern California in the late 20th century.
Circe
Remember Circe from The Odyssey? The witch who turned Odysseus’ men into pigs and kept him on the island for an entire year? You’re about to learn a lot more about her in this imaginative retelling.
Heads of the Colored People
This stories in this sardonic collection about black identity range from the antics of passive-aggressive officemates to a tragic episode of street violence to a hilarious exchange of notes between the mothers of two classmates, transported in their daughters’ backpacks.
The Perfect Mother
It can be hard to keep track of all the new psychological thrillers, especially those featuring missing children, unreliable narrators, new mothers, or a combination of all three. But if Kerry Washington is already adapting it for film, you probably want to read it.
The Map of Salt and Stars
This debut novel tells two tales of Syria set 800 years apart: one of a young refugee in 2011, and the other of a girl who disguises herself as a boy to apprentice with a medieval mapmaker.
The Ensemble
Meet the Van Ness String Quartet: four friends who probably would not have been friends if music hadn’t brought them together. This story starts in the early ’90s and follows the quartet for nearly two decades. (And yes, this is the requisite Instagrammable cover pick!)
