It's April, and I don't want to jinx it, but—at least here in New York—I think we can safely tuck our winter coats into the back of our closets. The weather is getting warmer, the sun is getting brighter, and a glimmer of optimism is finally emerging. I find it’s easier to express gratitude when I’m spending time in nature than when I’m holed up in my apartment obsessing over Gossip Girl .
With that in mind, and since April is the month to celebrate the outdoors—in addition to Earth Day and Arbor Day , apparently it’s also National Garden Month? — This list contains some of my favorite books that showcase the beauty of our planet. Below, you'll find an ode to the natural world and the people who respect it, a meditation on the lessons we can learn from the smallest creatures, and a vision for a future where the planet fights back against human abuse. As always, these are some of the most popular new releases this month. (If you missed it, you can find more of our spring picks here.)
old stuff
"Wonderful World" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil weaves her lyrical poetry into this collection of short essays about the world's most beautiful and strange things. She describes her love for these plants and animals and how she learns from them—smiling like a salamander in the face of microaggressions, finding wildness and its comfort in dragon fruit—while reflecting on herself as a Filipino Growing up as a white American child determined to make her feel like an outcast. A World of Wonders is both a memoir and a book of praise that is illuminating, profound, and joyful.
Miracle World Bookstore
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
When the essayist Elisabeth Tova Bailey was 34, she developed chronic fatigue syndrome, a disease that debilitated her so much that she became bedridden and virtually isolated from the world for a year. Understandably, she was distraught, but soon found hope in the stowaway: a tiny snail hiding among the leaves of a houseplant given to her by a friend. Bailey describes the book as a biography of the snail rather than a memoir, and this is reflected in her loving description of the creature. Bailey saw a similar spirit in the snail, another creature struggling to adapt to its new life, and was moved to learn all about it. Where do snails usually live? What does it eat? How does it protect itself? She discovers the amazing adaptability of the smallest creatures and the possibility of connection in the most unlikely of places.
The sound of wild snails eating bookstore
"The Seed Keeper " by Diane Wilson
Dakota memoirist Diane Wilson's debut novel tells a quietly stirring story about four generations of Dakota women and their love of the land. The story centers on Rosalie Iron Wing, who returns to the remote cabin where she lived until the age of 12, when she was taken from her father and placed in foster care. As Rosalie seeks to better understand herself and develop a closer connection with her heritage, the story travels back in time, bringing with it the voices of ancestors she never knew. It's a moving condemnation of colonization and its forced alienation from nature, and a profound exploration of family, identity and survival.
Seed Keeper Bookstore
new things
One of Us Knows Alyssa Cole
Longtime romance queen Alyssa Cole branched out into thrillers with 2020's When No One Was Watching , and it's exciting to see her return with another project. In her latest work, we meet Kenetria Nash, six years after she was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder) because of her long-dormant identities One surfaced. Kenterea gets a job managing the historic Hudson Manor, but when she arrives at a place she thought she'd never been, she realizes the castle looks just like she had in mind. The castle where the Headmaster lives is exactly the same. A storm comes; a ghost appears; an ex appears; danger ensues. It's a weird and funny psychological thriller that explores trauma and survival, refusing to reduce its protagonist's illness to a gimmick.
one of us knows the bookstore
Husbands by Holly Gramazio
One day in London, a strange man walks down from the attic of Lauren, a 20-something, who insists, and everyone she knows, that he is her husband. When he returned a few days later, along with the new husband, Lauren's confusing new reality began to come into focus. Each husband carries an entire history that not only changes Lauren's life, but the lives of everyone she knows, and as the years and hundreds of such men pass, Lauren experiences confusion, detachment of entertainment, boredom, sadness and fear. Somehow this cycle never gets old. The concept is crazy, but most importantly, Gramazio is able to land it with humor and fully fleshed out emotions. Every short-lived relationship—and an unexpected friendship—has gravity and serious existential consequences. In a world full of remakes and stale plots, what a joy to find a truly unexpected story! As I listened to the audiobook, I kept thinking: How the hell did anyone come up with this? If it were me, if it were my series of strange husbands, what would I do?
husband bookstore
I gladly say no to Leif Enger
Engel’s modern epic follows Rainey, a musician who lives in an environmental and political dystopia of the future. Grieving for his recently deceased wife, Rainey sets sail on Lake Superior in search of a mysterious island where the deceased is said to reside and where his bookseller wife once thought she had discovered a legendary but long-dead man. writer. The story clearly draws on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which a charming lyre player follows his wife into hell, but his legendary misadventures also recall Odysseus, Don Quixote and Gulliver. This is a book-loving book (the title is the title of the aforementioned writer's never-published manuscript, lost in the publishing industry's collapse), and the many literary references underscore a timely theme: books, especially as countermeasures to intentional Weapons of ignorance.
I happily refuse bookstores
something unexpected
The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges
I've loved this book - a collection of 116 fantastical creatures from around the world - for years, but recently I started sharing the less creepy entries with my 4-year-old. Borges's descriptions of the familiar (centaurs, elves) and the lesser-known (the shocking half-lion, half-ant Memecolion) are brief, vivid, and thoroughly researched, 2005 The whimsical illustrations of the annual edition bring the text to life. Perfect for casual use when the mood strikes.
Imagination book bookstore
