Spring has arrived, and April is the pinnacle of the spring publishing season. In addition a half dozen nonfiction titles featured in this month’s Peak Picks, there are dozens of new books to consider. Check out some of the highlights below!
In memoir and biography, social media superstar Isabel Klee searches for true love in New York City – along with her first true love, her fluffy companion Simon – in Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I’ve Cried About. Brianna Madia considers putting down roots, but on her own terms, as she settles into a untethered life in Homesick Nomad while Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Beverly Gage takes the ultimate road trip through U.S. history in This Land is Your Land. Lena Dunham, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls, reflects on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between in Famesick and Beverly Hills, 90210 star Jennie Garth opens up about pursuing happiness, aging with confidence, and learning to love and prioritize herself in I Choose Me. Celebrity biographer Bob Spitz reckons with the world’s greatest rock band, The Rolling Stones. And Andrew Graham-Dixon persuasively addresses the two great unresolved questions about Vermeer – why did he paint his pictures, and what do they mean?
Looking for literary biographies? Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Janye Anne Philips reflects on her West Virginia origins and the mysteries of memory in Small Town Girls while Irish author Anne Enright blends personal reflection with urgent political writing and wide-ranging cultural criticism in Attention. PNW-based writer and editor Jenny Bartoy illuminates the realities and nuances of family estrangement in No Contact. And Caroline Bicks reflects on a year of fear with full access to Stephen King’s creative process in Monsters in the Archives.
In current events, Jordan River Conn explores identity, heritage, and the pressures and performance of modern American masculinity in American Men while Fortesa Latifi pens a searing investigation into the child influencer industry and the perils of childhood internet fame in Like, Follow, Subscribe. Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff examine Elon Musk as a symptom and avatar of our postliberal age in Muskism while Michael Edison Hayden reveals what happened to a small American town when an influential white nationalist group relocated its headquarters there in Strange People on the Hill. And Marxist geographer and economist David Harvey guides general readers through major concepts in capitalism and Marx’s masterwork in The Story of Capital.
In history, Peter Stark considers Conquistador Francisco Coronado’s quest to conquer the West, spurring the birth of American Indian resistance, in The Lost Cities of El Norte and Craig Fehrman offers a fresh and more accurate account of the Lewis and Clark expedition in This Vast Enterprise. Molly Crabapple tells the dramatic story of the Jewish Bund, once the most influential Jewish political force in eastern Europe, in Here Where We Live Is Our Country. And Rana Dasgupta chronicles the birth of nation-states and the consequences of their failure in After Nations.
Mary Claire Haver returns with an evidence-based guide to surviving the zone of chaos and helping women feel like themselves again in The New Perimenopause and Cynthia Thurlow helps women balance their microbiome to reclaim health in midlife and beyond with The Menopause Gut while Trisha Pasricha shows you how to make your bowel movements a joy in You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong. Sara Hall shares the inspiring story of her record-breaking career as a rower and her unconventional path to motherhood via adoption in For the Love of the Grind; Martin Dugard considers Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit, Grete Waitz, and the decade that made the marathon cool in The Long Run; and Alan Shipmuck pens the definitive biography of Rory McIlory, the most important, popular, and confounding player of the post-Tiger era, in Rory.
Cosmologist and particle physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein embraces cosmic wonder, taking readers on a mind-altering journey to the boundaries of the universe, in The Edge of Space-Time. From paleontologist Stephen Brusatte comes The Story of Birds, a sweeping evolutionary history of birds, from their dinosaur origins to the 10,000+ extraordinary species alive today. Philosopher Robert Moor explores how trees – from the mightiest sequoia to the tiniest bonsai – can teach us to grow wise with In Trees. And Cathy Haynes considers the forgotten art of marking time from nature’s daily rhythms and a call to notice the wonders of the living world, wherever you are in The Fullness of Time.
in self improvement, Jim Collins (Good to Great) offers transformative lessons on constructing–and reconstructing–a life through the cliff moments and transitions we all will face repeatedly in our lives in What to Make of a Life while Kate Bowler reveals the surprising magic of joy – and how we can access it even when happiness feels out of reach – in Joyful, Anyway. Amir Levine (Attached) presents a bold new promise – that anyone can learn to create a secure life – and offers cutting-edge tools to make it a reality – with Secure. Lisa Olivera blends personal experience with therapeutic wisdom on tending to the unfixable and finding beauty anyway in When the Ache Remains while Kerry Docherty puts herself first after prioritizing other people’s needs in Selfish. Today Show host Sheinelle Jones shares simple wisdom from mothers who raised extraordinary humans in Through Mom’s Eyes. New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor tackles the question, “How, in this environment, is anyone supposed to find and start their life’s work?” in How to Start. And Jennie Young shows women how to decode dating, torch the duds, and make room for men who matter in Burn the Haystack.
Finally, budding chefs have a diverse selection of cookbooks to consider this month. Nargisse Benkabbou shares simple and delicious everyday recipes with the flavors of Morocco in Madaq; Adeena Sussman offers a simpler approach to Israeli-inspired home cooking with thoughtful, satisfying recipes ideal for every day with Zariz; Donna Hay celebrates modern coastal cooking for friends and family in Sunshine, Lemons and Sea Salt; and Saeng Douangdara explores Lao food through 95 approachable, flavor-packed recipes in The Lao Kitchen. Melissa Ben-Ishay returns with 100 vibrant, flavor-packed collection of delicious, nutritious meals that make it easy to nourish your family every day in Come Eat and Trinity Mouzon Wofford’s debut celebrates the gentle but radical act of dining in, with 85 recipes that illustrate how affordable, good-for-you ingredients can become the foundation for memorable meals in Eating at Home. Matthew Bounds boosts your confidence in the kitchen with 80 foolproof recipes for busy weeknights, lazy weekends, date nights, and other special occasions in
Keep It Simple Y’all: Every Day and Crystal Schmidt shares 160 meal starters and make-ahead dishes for the freezer in Freeze Fresh Meal Prep. Finally, from the team behind the King Arthur Baking Company comes the definitive book dedicated to the key elements of making pizza, King Arthur Baking Company’s Big Book of Pizza and vegan queen Isa Chandra Moskowitz shows readers how to get a plant-based meal on the table in just under 30 minutes with The 29-Minute Vegan.
~posted by Frank. All descriptions provided by publishers.
