April marks the beginning of the busy spring publishing season, and this month’s crop of new books will not disappoint. Inspiring and approachable cookbooks, bold and nurturing self care titles, delightful pop culture histories and more will make your TBR pile taller than ever. And don’t forget to check out five spectacular additions to Peak Picks in April!
Notable and Noteworthy Authors.
Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, details the trials and tribulations of the Royal family since Princess Diana’s death in The Palace Papers. Saturday Night Live alum Molly Shannon reflects on her traumas and triumphs in the hilarious and heartbreaking Hello Molly! while self-proclaimed nerd Wil Wheaton revisits Hollywood, fandom and his famous blog posts in Still Just a Geek. Bestselling author and journalist Anna Quindlen guides readers to find themselves through the written word in Write For Your Life and the journals of Pulitzer Prize-winning Alice Walker shed light on her life and career as a Black woman in Gathering Blossoms Under Fire. Renowned primatologist Frans de Waal explores gender in humans and other animals in Different.
What’s Cooking?
Former Seattleite Holly Erickson delights home cooks with simple dinners that are sure to become part of your weekday rotation in The Modern Proper while Bon Appétit editor Any Baraghani shares 120 bold recipes so you can become The Cook You Want to Be. Home cooks looking for low-effort high-reward recipes won’t be disappointed with I Dream of Dinner, So You Don’t Have To by Ali Slagle, and Alexis de Boschnek makes the most of every ingredient and leaves nothing to waste in To the Last Bite.
Histories, Big and Small.
Kim Kelly recounts the 150 year history of organized labor in Fight Like Hell; meanwhile Thomas Piketty (Capital in the 21st Century) revisits great movements in history in his latest, A Brief History of Equality. Author and “human guinea pig” A.J. Jacobs (The Year of Living Biblically) goes on a quest to understand (and solve) the enduring power of crosswords, jigsaws and other brainy games in The Puzzler. Shawn Levy introduces us to the trailblazing women who were the original queens of stand-up comedy with In on the Joke, and Danyel Smith takes readers on a very personal history of Black women in pop music in Shine Bright. Finally, Louisa Lim considers Hong Kong through its complex history and uncertain future in The Indelible City.
Restorative Reads.
Late-night host Lilly Singh’s primer on “coming home” to your authentic self, Be a Triangle, will inspire fans and newbies alike. Bestselling Christian writer Shauna Niequist helps readers find new ways of living when the old ways stop working in I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet while Joshua Becker (The Minimalist Home) helps you overcome distraction to pursue a more meaningful life in Things That Matter. Zen Buddhist monk Shunmyō Masuno provides readers with 48 lessons on relieving anxiety in Don’t Worry. Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness shares observations from his gorgeously queer life in Love That Story and Liz Fosslein & Mollie West Duffy let us know how to be okay when things are not okay in the illustrated guide Big Feelings. In Nowhere for Very Long, Brianna Madia lives an unconventional life traveling across the deserts of the American West along with her orange van Bertha; Matt Richdel uncovers the mysteries of creativity in Inspired; and Becca Levy shows us how our beliefs about getting older can extend our lives in Breaking the Age Code.
Moving Memoirs.
Chloé Cooper Jones explores the ways people with disabilities are seen, and not seen, in Easy Beauty while Devon Price (Laziness Does Not Exist) considers the wide range of Autistic experience and demystifies neurodiversity for the masses in Unmasking Autism. Mary Laura Philpott tackles life, death and existential fear following a health crisis involving her son in Bomb Shelter; Paul Holes, the detective who found the Golden State Killer, tells the tales – and the toll – of a life solving crime in Unmasked; and Margo Jefferson (Negroland) fuses criticism, memoir and art in the strikingly original Constructing a Nervous System.
~posted by Frank
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