Happy coming spring! March kicks off a new publishing season, and with this month's new releases, there's plenty of exciting reads to look forward to. It’s been an unusual month full of great books—Lit Hub columnist Maris Kreizman calls it the best month for reading in years - So you will have enough choices. Here are some of my favorite songs, and you can find more great songs on Bustle's Spring Preview list, but I've also included some older songs that, for some reason, seem to embody the energy of spring. It’s not necessarily about a book’s timeline, but more about the feelings it evokes—a sense of rebirth, optimism, vitality, even a bit of whimsy. (Bonus points if you’re an audiobook fan and read these books on a brisk, sunny walk; I especially recommend listening to Loot !)
old stuff
" His Only Wife" by Peace Adzo Medie
Peace Adzo Medie's debut novel is one of my favorite novels of 2020; it's a vibrant, deeply moving story that offers an escape from the many catastrophes of the year. The story follows Afi, a Ghanaian seamstress who agrees to marry a very wealthy man she has never met. The marriage was a favor to his mother, who had cared for Affi and her own mother after his father's death, and who was desperate to get her son away from the woman he was already living with. Unsurprisingly, it's not an ideal match - although Afi lives in a swanky new apartment and has access to Accra's most elite corners, her husband has largely ignored her - but Afi is Quickly realize this is a gift: she has the freedom (and money) to indulge herself, and together we embark on an exciting journey.
his only wife bookstore
Tania James' Booty
Bear with me, but The Spoils of War is the kind of book I always thought I wouldn't like. I saw a lot of proper nouns in the description—the many countries the story spans, the important people the protagonist meets, the key dates in history that I probably should have known but didn’t—and it all became blurry. But it also reminds me that if I don't get over that first impression, I'm playing myself. "Spoils of War" centers on Abbas, a precocious 17-year-old carpenter in 18th-century India who is recruited by the capricious Tipu Sultan to build a giant tiger robot. (It’s a true, incredible work of art that I didn’t put together until I finished reading the book.) Over the decades, James charts his journey through political turmoil, navigational scandals, petty frauds, The miraculous growth process is, of course, the enhancement of friendship. I devoured this poignant, endearing, and strangely funny book, easily getting swept up in its world and barely needing to go back and brush up on the details.
Loot Bookstore
Hermione Hobby "Neon in the Sun "
Literary fiction is littered with stories of 20-somethings bumbling their way to New York with lofty goals and questionable means, so it takes a lot for a novel to stand the test of time. When I think about Londoner-turned-New Yorker Hermione Hoby’s debut in 2018, I can immediately recall the feeling — the heat of the city, the spontaneity, and never knowing that the day would come. The excitement of where it takes you. The series tells the story of Kate, a British graduate student who becomes entangled in the chaos of New York City after moving to the United States, especially when she inadvertently starts dating her new friend's father. It's immersive, insightful, and told with perfect protracted tension.
Neon bookstore under daylight
new things
"Morningside" by Téa Obreht
I’m a sucker for climate novels that take place in the possible future, and Oblett’s latest appealed to me immediately. In the world of The Morning Side , 11-year-old Sylvia and her mother are forced from their war-torn home and resettled in a once-big city (strongly implied to be New York), but now mostly All were submerged underwater. They land in Morningside, an apartment building that retains the luxury of its past, and they live with her aunt, who works as a caretaker. Sylvia was eager to learn about her family's history, and while her mother was tight-lipped about it, her aunt was more than happy to share the myths of their people and ancestral land. It's a fascinating look at displacement, identity, and the impact of unchecked political power, dripping with shades of magical realism and dystopia.
Morningside Bookstore
James played by Percival Everett
Percival Everett was extremely prolific, both in terms of his output and the number of genres he was able to master. (FYI: "American Novel ," the film adaptation of his 2001 satirical novel "Erasure ," just won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.) In "James," he revised a literary classic, A reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn centered on Jim, an enslaved black man who escapes with Huck down the Mississippi River. Everett's version gives us a more realistic, and often brutal, version of the two men's journey - all seen through the eyes of a fully realized Jim, a knowledgeable, insightful, Someone with agency and ambition.
james bookstore
something unexpected
Caps Lock: How Capitalism Takes Over Graphic Design, and How to Break Free from It by Ruben Pater
I’m not even a graphic designer—my artistic abilities involve experimenting with Canva templates at previous jobs—but as someone who is generally interested in the intersection of money and art, a few months later this book The hefty book caught my attention at my local bookstore. Technically, Caps Lock is a reference book, so I've been reading it in bits and pieces, but its comprehensive look at the evolution of design and politics, told with accessible, compelling analysis, makes it Far from boring. Featuring the work of modern radical design groups, Caps Lock explores the less obvious effects of capitalism: How does design serve the economy, and how can its institutions be preserved? Can design be divorced from political power? What would that look like?
Caps Lock Bookstore
