We’re adding ten new Peak Picks in May!
In fiction, Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive in The Emperor of Gladness; Christina Li’s adult debut reveals the secrets that lie in wait in the crumbling mansion of a former Hollywood starlet, and the intertwined fates of the two Chinese American families fighting to inherit it in The Manor of Dreams; Aaron John Curtis debuts with a coming-of-middle-age novel about an Ahkwesáhsne man’s reluctant return home and what it takes to heal in Old School Indian; Seattle Times arts critic Moira Macdonald debuts with a charming story about romance, friendship, and a love of books, in which two women—a lonely remote worker and a widowed single mom—and a handsome local bookstore clerk find themselves in an unusual love triangle when an anonymous note left in a book finds the wrong recipient in Storybook Ending; and Sara Hamden debuts with the story of Mia, whose secret comedy career, forbidden office crush, and a long-guarded family secret take center stage, threatening her newfound confidence and her one shot at fame in this hilarious, heartfelt coming-of-age story in What Will People Think?
In nonfiction, UW Professor Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna take a smart, incisive look at the technologies sold as artificial intelligence, the drawbacks and pitfalls of technology sold under this banner, and why it’s crucial to recognize the many ways in which AI hype covers for a small set of power-hungry actors at work and in the world in The AI Con; from Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland and “the great nature writer…of this generation” (Wall Street Journal), comes a revelatory book that transforms how we imagine rivers—and life itself in Is A River Alive?; Black transgender luminary Tourmaline brings to life the first definitive biography of the revolutionary activist Marsha P. Johnson, one of the most important and remarkable figures in LGBTQIA+ history, revealing her story, her impact, and her legacy in Marsha; and from Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind and Utopia for Realists—”a more politically radical Malcolm Gladwell” (The New York Times)—comes a bold manifesto daring us to harness our talents and transform our idealism into action, all with the goal of making the world a wildly better place, in Moral Ambition. Finally, Alison Bechdel, the celebrated and beloved bestselling author of the modern classic Fun Home presents a laugh-out-loud, brilliant, and passionately political work of autofiction with the graphic novel Spent.
All descriptions provided by publishers.
~posted by Frank