My April 2019 Book List is part of my ongoing attempt to keep track of new and interesting titles as they are released by publishers. Although I would like to read every title I cannot because of time constraints and financial ones. Some titles I include for others who might use these lists, such as the books about baseball which are on this month’s list. I have placed an asterisk next to books that sound especially to my taste. I may not stick with my original choices. Sometimes readers provide feedback that makes a title more desirable and moves it up in my priorities. Tempting to sit in a comfy chair surrounded by piles of books and just read, but I understand that sitting for long periods of time can rob you of your mobility. Thank goodness you can read at the gym or even in the park. Enjoy!
Amazon
Literature and Fiction
Normal People: A Novel by Sally Rooney *
The Parisian by Isabella Hammad *
Roar by Cecilia Ahem (Short stories)
Lights All Night Long: A Novel by Lydia Fitzpatrick *
Boy Swallows Universe: A Novel by Trent Dalton *
The Girl He Used to Know: A Novel by Tracy Garvis Graves
Courting Mr. Lincoln: A Novel by Louis Bayard
Stay Up with Hugo Best: A Novel by Erin Somers *
Outside Looking In: A Novel by T.C. Boyle *
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
Mysteries and Thrillers
I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney
Odd Partners: An Anthology, Mystery Writers of America, Alison Brennan, et al
Redemption (Memory Man series) by David Baldacci
Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline
The Mother-In-Law: A Novel by Sally Hepworth
Miracle Creek: A Novel by Angie Kim
Metropolis (A Bernie Gunther Novel) by Philip Kerr
The Better Sister: A Novel by Alafair Burke
Confessions of an Innocent Man by David R. Dow
The Eighth Sister by Robert Dugone
Biographies and Memoirs
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl
Some Stories: Lessons from the Edge of Business and Sport by Yvon Chouinard
Colin Powell: Imperfect Patriot by Jeffrey J. Matthews
Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America by Jared Cohen
Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement by Rich Karlgaard
Women of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell
The Honey Bees: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees by Meredith May
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
Autumn Light: Seasons of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer
Women’s Work: A Reckoning with Work and Home by Megan K. Stack
Let’s Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, The Life of Ernie Banks by Ron Rapoport
The Light Years: A Memoir by Chris Rush
Notes From a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi, Joshua David Stein
Nonfiction
The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Criminal Interrogation by Mark Bowden
The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story by Aaron Bobrow-Strain
Hotbox: Inside Catering, the Food World’s Riskiest Business by Matt Lee, Ted Lee
The Mission of a Lifetime: Lessons from the Men Who Went to the Moon by Basil Hero
Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe by Steven Strogatz
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy on the Great Space Race by Douglas Brinkley
Everything in it’s Place: First Loves and Last Tales by Oliver Sacks
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes what We See, Think and Do by Jennifer Everhardt, PhD
Shakespeare’s Library: Unlocking the Greatest Mystery in Literature by Stuart Kells
Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris
The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive and Fall by Mark W. Moffett
Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Luminous Dead by Caillin Starling
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World: A Novel by C. A. Fletcher
(and a number of series that have added new volumes)
New York Times Book Review
March 8
Nonfiction
An American Summer by Alex Kotlowitz
Nobody’s Looking at You by Janet Malcolm
Good Kids, Bad City by Kyle Swenson
Nature’s Mutiny by Philipp Blom
El Norte by Carrie Gibson
Fiction
The Wall by John Lanchester *
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
Cherokee American by Margaret Verble *
New and Noteworthy
The Art of Bible Translation by Robert Alter
A Desert Harvest by Bruce Berger
Who Killed My Father by Edouard Louis
Max Havelaar, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company by Multatuli
8 New Books Recommended by Editors this Week
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason by William Davies *
Mamas Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves by Frans de Waal
The White Book by Han Kang
The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison
Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa
The Heavens by Sandra Newman
March 15th
Fiction
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
Elsewhere Home by Leila Aboulela
House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
Nonfiction
I.M. by Isaac Mizrahi (Memoir)
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War by Lynne Olson
Ten Caesars by Barry Strauss
Figuring by Maria Popova
Truth in Our Times by David McCraw
The Impossible Climb by Mark Synnott
The End of the Myth by Greg Grandin
The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges by Aatish Taseer
March 22
Fiction
The Parade by Dave Eggers
The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib (eating disorders)
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray (eating disorders)
The Silk Road by Kathryn Davis
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
Nonfiction
First: Sandra Day O’Connor by Evan Thomas
The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff
Savage Feast by Boris Fishman (Memoir)
Survival Math by Mitchell S. Jackson
Ten Drugs by Thomas Hager
The Chief by Joan Biskupic (Life of John Roberts)
Zora and Langston by Yuval Taylors
Sounds Like Titanic by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman (memoir)
Spies of No Country by Matti Friedman
In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan
March 29
If you search and find this issue of the NYT’s Book Review you will find a link to a list of 100 Notable Books of 2018.
Fiction
The Old Drift by Nomwali Serpell *
Memories of the Future by Siri Hustvedt *
The Women’s War by Jenna Glass
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
The Promise of Elsewhere by Brad Leithauser
Latest Horror Fiction
The Very Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan
A People’s Future of the United States, ed. By Victor LaValle, John Joseph
The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell
The Familiars by Stacey Halls
Bickering Family Novels
White Elephant by Julie Langsdorf
Little Faith by Nikolas Butter
A Weekend in New York by Benjamin Moskovitz
Nonfiction
Doing Justice by Preet Bharara *
Thin Blue Lie by Matt Stroud
Putin’s World by Angela E. Stent
The Age of Disenchantment by Aaron Shulman
Bending Toward Justice by Doug Jones
Foursome by Carolyn Burke *
America’s Jewish Women by Pamela S. Nadell *
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young (memoir)
Publisher’s Weekly Tip Sheet
10 Books Coming Up for Spring
Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Disappearing Earth: A Novel by Julia Phillips
We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
I Am God: A Novel by Giacomo Sartori
The Age of Light: A Novel by Whitney Scharer
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
House of Stone: A Novel by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
American Spy: A Novel by Lauren Wilkinson
March 1
Ancestral Night: White Space, Book 1 by Elizabeth Bear * – F
Lovely War by Julie Berry – YA
Little Faith by Nickolas Butler – F
A Fire Story by Brian Fies – Graphic Memoir
Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family by Mitchell S. Jackson – Memoir
An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz – NF
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland by Jonathan M. Metzi * – NF
The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt Och Dag, trans. from Swedish by Ebba Segerberg – Mystery
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara – Biography
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi * – F
That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the 11th Hour by Sunita Puri * – NF
The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona “this is a bold, rewarding novel” * – F
Solitary by Albert Woodfox with Leslie George * – Memoir
March 8
Wolf Pack by C. J. Box (A Joe Pickett Novel) – F
Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future by Kate Brown – NF
American Diplomacy and the Case for its Renewal by William J. Burns – NF
If, Then: A Novel by Kate Hope Day – F
See You in the Piazza: New Places to Discover in Italy by Frances Mayes * – NF
The Selected Works of Abdullah The Cossack by H. M. Naqvi (Karachi) * – F
The Dragonfly Sea by Yvonne Aahaimbo Owour -Kenyan woman discovers Chinese heritage * – F
The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Story by Cara Robertson – NF
Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson – NF
March 15
A Town Called Malice by Adam Abramowitz – F
Doing Justice – A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment and the Rule of Law by Preet Bharara – NF
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams * – F
The Scar: A Personal History of Depression and Recovery by Mary Cregan – Memoir
Leaving Richard’s Valley by Michael DeForge – Graphic Novel
Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World by Lyndell Gordon – Biography
Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead by Bill Griffith – Graphic Bio
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley – Science Fiction
Memories of the Future by Siri Hustvedt – F
White Shoe: How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Changed Big Business and the American City by John Oller – NF
The Sun is a Compass: A 4,000 Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds by Caroline Van Hemert – NF
Lot by Bryan Washington – Short Stories
March 22
The Workshop and the World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us About Science and Authority by Robert P. Crease – NF
The Club: Johnson, Boswell and the Friends Who Shaped An Age by Leo Damrosch – NF
Murder by the Book: The Crime that Shocked Dickens’s London by Claire Harman – True Crime
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob – Graphic Memoir
A Change of Time by Ida Jessen, trans. from Danish by Martin Aitken * – F
The Other Americans: A Novel by Laila Lalami * – F
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell – “this is an astonishing novel” * – F
Coders: The Making of a New Art and the Remaking of the World by Clive Thompson – NF
Guantanamo Kid: The True Story of Mohammed El-Gharani – Graphic Narrative – NF
The American Agent: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear – F
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon Young – NF
March 29
Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison – “underlain with formidable erudition” * – NF
The Last Stone: A Masterpiece of Criminal Investigation by Mark Bowden – True Crime
Gravity’s Century: From Einstein’s Eclipse to Images of Black Holes by Ron Cowen – “both a learning experience and a pleasure to read” – NF
Boy Swallows Universe: A Novel by Trent Walton –“an outstanding debut” – F
Diary of a Dead Man on Leave by David Downing – Thriller
Lost and Wanted by Neil Freudenberger – F
Is This How You See Me? by Jaime Hernandez – F
K: A History of Baseball in 10 Pitches by Tyler Kepner – NF
Loch of the Dead by Oscar de Muriel – Victorian mystery
Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris – NF
Let’s Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, the Life of Ernie Banks by Ron Rapoport – NF
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling – F
How Change Happens by Cass R. Sunstein – NF
Women Talking by Miriam Toews – F
So Many Books, Choose Wisely 