Paperback Picks
The two greatest gifts you could give any mother for Mother’s Day are 1) a good book and 2) the time and space to quietly enjoy it with no interruptions.
This May, every bookstore in town is bursting with new-in-paperback titles — from historical accounts of war heroes to romances of every stripe and sci-fi thrillers — that will help you ace the first part of your Mother’s Day quest. When it comes to ensuring that mom gets a little downtime, though, you’re on your own.
“Motherhood Discounted” by Carolyn McConnell (She Writes Press, $17.99). Subtitled “Care Work in America Before and After Roe,” Seattle author McConnell’s book explores how the American love of independence undercuts our human need for community and care work — and, by proxy, the work and experiences of women.
“Victorian Psycho” by Virginia Feito (Liveright, $16.99). Jane Austen meets Bret Easton Ellis in this campy novel about a governess who decides to get revenge on her wealthy employers. Pick this one up before the movie tie-in cover is inevitably slapped on when the film adaptation starring Maika Monroe, Jason Isaacs and Thomasin McKenzie arrives in theaters this fall.
“The Hidden Life of Trees” by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst (Greystone Books, $18.95). One of last year’s bestselling nature books argues that, far from being passive parts of the landscape, trees are in fact members of social networks that share resources, communicate and live in family units.
“The Last Contract of Isako” by Fonda Lee (Orbit, $19.99). A swordswoman at the end of a long career finds herself unemployed and at the mercy of a failed former apprentice who has somehow gained tremendous power in this dystopian samurai epic from the author of the “Green Bone Saga.”
“Rachel West and the Fallen Starlet” by Emma Mills (Berkley, $19). In this witty mystery set in the long-forgotten yesteryear of 2008, a tabloid reporter makes friends with a former child star. When the notoriously hard-partying celebrity turns up dead in an apparent overdose, only the reporter suspects foul play.
“The Summer of Second Chances” by K. L. Walther (Sourcebooks Fire, $14.99). It’s almost summer romance season again, so why not kick your summer of love off with the story of a young woman seeking adventure and love on Martha’s Vineyard?
“A Star-Cursed Heart” by Annie Mare (Ace, $19). Or if you prefer your romance to be more fantastical and LGBTQ+-themed, you should pick up Mare’s latest dark fantasy, in which two lovers are cursed to live as sworn enemies as part of a centuries-old feud that traces back to the Salem witch trials.
“How Things Are Made” by Tim Minshall (Ecco, $18.99). If you remember being hypnotized by segments on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Sesame Street” that showed how everyday items like crayons and tubas are manufactured in factories, this is the book for you. Minshall explains how a wide variety of everyday items are sourced, shaped and shipped around the world.
“Spitfires” by Becky Aikman (Bloomsbury Publishing, $19.99). Subtitled “The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger During World War II,” Aikman’s latest tells the story of 25 exceptional young pilots who wanted to fly on missions for the United States during World War II. Because they happened to be women, they were barred from serving their country — so they signed up to fly transport planes for Great Britain instead.
“First and Forever” by Lynn Painter (Berkley, $19). A tight end for the Minneapolis Coyotes is railroaded into a PR-stunt romance with the team’s number-one fan in Painter’s latest sports-themed romance. Expect bubbly chemistry, romantic angst and at least one mishap involving a team mascot.
“The Director” by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin (S&S/Summit Books, $19). Perhaps the only novel by a German author to be simultaneously longlisted for a Booker Prize and featured as a “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” book club title, “The Director” centers on a film director who flees the Nazi invasion of France to find a new career in Hollywood. Now a small fish in a big pond, the director needs the help of a world-famous actress whom he discovered years ago, Greta Garbo, to save his career.
“A Founding Mother” by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie (William Morrow Paperbacks, $19.99). An untold hero of American history gets her due in this novel that tells the story of how Abigail Adams defended her family and offered wise counsel to her husband as America’s second-ever first lady.
“August Lane” by Regina Black (Grand Central Publishing, $18.99). A country music star who’s sick of playing the hits — his best-known song is literally titled “Another Love Song” — is thrown into an unhappy partnership with a songwriter he secretly plagiarized. The New York Times named “August Lane” one of the Notable Books of 2025.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com ’
