Paperback Picks
Those who hang out in literary circles know that March always delivers the first real bangers of the year.
You might find a hidden gem or two in January’s post-holiday releases, and February is a sneakily good month for fans of genre fiction. But March is when publishers are preparing to hook your attention and reel you back into bookstores for the spring book season.
Here’s a list of a few of the paperback releases that will wow you this month.
“Kate & Frida” by Kim Fay (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $18). For certain Seattle literary die-hards — I’m referring here to those who used to shop at Elliott Bay Book Company when it was in Pioneer Square and still refer to the Capitol Hill store as “the new location” — this epistolary romance written by Fay, a former Elliott Bay employee, serves as a love letter to the good old days. “Kate & Frida” documents a very 1990s correspondence between a young bookseller at the Puget Sound Book Company (a very obvious Elliott Bay stand-in) and an aspiring journalist looking to document the war in Sarajevo.
“The Beginning Comes After the End” by Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket Books, $16.95). From establishing the word “mansplaining” to writing “Hope in the Dark,” one of the best nonfiction books about political action in the 21st century, Solnit has become one of the leading interpreters of the world as we know it. Her latest book looks at the regressive political forces that have taken power around the globe and analyzes why nostalgia for a past that never was is such a potent rallying cry for so many.
“Suspicion” by Seicho Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (Modern Library, $17). The Sunday Times famously dubbed mystery author Matsumoto as “Japan’s Agatha Christie,” but that comparison is a bit reductive. The woman accused of killing her husband in this new English translation is based on a true crime story that made headlines in Japan, and the portrayal of the sleazy journalist who is dead set on framing the protagonist for murder is a darker, creepier creation than Christie was capable of summoning.
“Deep Cuts” by Holly Brickley (Crown, $18). Set in the indie rock world of the early 2000s, Brickley’s novel tells the story of a partnership between a pedantic music lover and an aspiring songwriter that transforms both their lives. A film adaptation of “Deep Cuts,” written by Brickley and produced by uber-hip studio A24, is on the way, so pick up your copy before the inevitable movie tie-in cover reveals you as hopelessly behind the times.
“The Demon of Unrest” by Erik Larson (Crown, $22). Larson, one of our finest historical writers, has written a deep and compelling exploration of the five months of unrest and agitation between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the first shots fired in the Civil War. Why did Larson choose now to write a chronicle of an America on the brink of chaos, violence and fragmentation? Who can say? It’s one of life’s great mysteries.
“The Natural Way of Things” by Charlotte Wood (Riverhead Books, $18). In this tense and mysterious novel, a group of women awaken in the middle of a desert with no memory of how they came to be imprisoned, or by whom. While performing hard labor, they learn that they have all crossed paths with powerful, misogynistic men in their pasts. Can they escape and make their jailers pay for what they’ve done?
“Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert” by Bob the Drag Queen (Gallery Books, $17.99). In this debut novel from the popular drag queen and TV host, famous deceased historical figures come back to life in modern-day. Harriet Tubman decides to make the most of her second chance by cutting a hip-hop album and going on tour.
“The King of Diamonds” by Rena Pederson (Pegasus Crime, $19.95). In the 1960s, a jewel thief, dubbed “The King of Diamonds,” targeted households in wealthy Dallas neighborhoods. Pederson’s account of the unsolved crime wave digs deep into the kinds of unbelievable twists and turns that only a real-life case could deliver.
“Nesting” by Roisín O’Donnell (Algonquin Books, $19.99). Up-and-coming Irish novelist O’Donnell’s latest is about a pregnant mother of two daughters who, seemingly without any forethought, packs her kids in the car and flees their home. As she struggles to build a new life with the help of the social safety net, her husband relentlessly tries to win her back.
“There Is No Place for Us” by Brian Goldstone (Crown, $20). Subtitled “Working and Homeless in America,” Goldstone’s nonfiction narrative tracking five Atlanta families in and out of homelessness was celebrated as one of the ten best books of the year by both The New York Times and The Atlantic. Barack Obama called it one of his favorite books of the year.
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