Booklist Reader

Earth Day, World Health Day, National Poetry Month, and Arab American Heritage Month—these are just a few of the many observances celebrated in April. Love nature? Thinking about health and well-being? Interested in poetry, history, and culture? If yes, I highly recommend a trip to your library because, of course, there’s a bounty of books on all of these topics! April is a particularly fantastic month to spend time in the library, to connect with your library workers, and to learn about the many programs and services your library offers because April 6–12 is National Library Week. The American Library Association’s National Library Week theme this year is “Drawn to the Library.” Award-winning author and illustrator Raina Telgemeier and cartoonist and comic theorist Scott McCloud are serving as honorary chairs…

Behind You Is the Sea. By Susan Muaddi Darraj. 2024. HarperVia. In this marvelous and moving episodic novel, Darraj portrays the joys, resentments, and yearnings of three generations of a tight-knit Palestinian American community. Blessings. By Chukwuebuka Ibeh. 2024. Doubleday. In the tradition of the great Nigerian writers who have come before him, Ibeh expresses a quiet, transcendent truth in this novel of a mother’s and son’s parallel challenges to accept themselves, having each failed to meet societal expectations. Catalina. By Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. 2024. One World. Brazen, smart Catalina is as tangled as the khipus—material vestiges of a sophisticated Inca system of communication—that thread throughout this tale, and her undocumented status is only one of the stressors she confronts in Villavicencio’s bravura bildungsroman. Cinema Love. By Jiaming Tang. 2024.…

All This Could Be Different. By Sarah Thankam Mathews. 2022. Viking. Sneha has just graduated college and landed in Milwaukee, far from home. She works long days at her consulting job, surfs apps, finds friends, and worries that her parents back in India will never accept that she’s queer. The Archer. By Shruti Swamy. 2021. Algonquin. In Bombay, Vidya is raised by an extended family while her mother is institutionalized, takes care of her father and brother, pursues a passion for classical Indian dance, marries, becomes pregnant, and unexpectedly returns to her childhood home in a tale that deeply considers femaleness. The Bandit Queens. By Parini Shroff. 2023. Ballantine. In Shroff’s darkly hilarious take on gossip, caste, truth, village life, and the patriarchy—inspired by Phoolan Devi, “the Bandit Queen,” who…

What Percival Everett Wants You to Read: Language and Thought Fiction A Clockwork Orange. By Anthony Burgess. 1962. Burgess’ celebrated satirical dystopian novel, endlessly shocking and thought-provoking, revolves around Alex, a teen gang leader who speaks an inventive slang, and is sentenced to 14 years for murder, then brainwashed and released. Foucault’s Pendulum. By Umberto Eco. Translated by William Weaver. 1988. Italian writer and philosopher Eco’s grand esoteric puzzle of a novel is catalyzed by a manuscript about the Knights Templars’ alleged plan to take over the world and spirals around the author, editors, a hoax, occult rites, conspiracy theories, and mysterious disappearances. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. By Laurence Sterne. 1759–67. Tristram Shandy tells the story of his life in a stream-ofconsciousness narrative spiked with satire, ribald…

The Confession Club. By Elizabeth Berg. 2019. Random. In a small town in Missouri, a group of friends gathers weekly to divulge their regrets, secrets, embarrassments, and sins in the safety of their “Confession Club.” Within the bonds of this sisterhood, there is no judgment, only support. Dele Weds Destiny. By Tomi Obaro. 2022. Knopf. Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab were inseparable friends at university despite their different upbringings and temperaments. While their friendship remains strong, it has been more than 30 years since the three were together. When they reunite in Lagos, it soon becomes clear that they must revisit their pasts to protect their children’s futures. The Friendship Club. By Robyn Carr. 2024. MIRA. In a suburb of Reno, Nevada, a celebrity cooking show unites chef Marni; her pregnant attorney…

Fiction Flirting Lessons. By Jasmine Guillory. Berkley. Fresh off a break-up, Avery wants to date men and women, but especially women. Enter Taylor. She has promised not to have sex until summer’s over, but she offers Avery flirting lessons that become a little too real. Gifted & Talented. By Olivie Blake. Tor. Blake, author of the TikTok-sensation The Atlas Six (2021), pits three competitive adult siblings—the head of a startup facing a dilemma; a mediocre, people-pleasing politician; and a former ballerina stuck in nine-to-five drudgery—against one another in the wake of their successful father’s death. Great Big Beautiful Life. By Emily Henry. Berkley. In best-selling Henry’s latest rom-com, an octogenarian former tabloid princess is ready to tell all in a memoir, and she invites two writers to her balmy island…