Happy spring everybody! We just got several inches of snow here in Salt Lake so it still feels very much like winter and I am desperate for some warm weather so I can get back outside. In the meantime, there are SO MANY good books coming out this month! I've been lucky enough to read two of them as advanced copies and I would highly recommend checking both of them out! Let's dive in:
1. Camp Zero - Michelle Min Sterling (Apr. 4)
Synopsis:
In the far north of Canada
sits Camp Zero, an American building project hiding many secrets.
Desperate to help her
climate-displaced Korean immigrant mother, Rose agrees to travel to Camp Zero and spy on its architect
in exchange for housing. She arrives at the same time as another newcomer, a college professor named
Grant who is determined to flee his wealthy family’s dark legacy. Gradually, they realize that there is
more to the architect than previously thought, and a disturbing mystery lurks beneath the surface of the
camp. At the same time, rumors abound of an elite group of women soldiers living and working at a nearby
Cold War-era climate research station. What are they doing there? And who is leading them?
Why I'm Excited: This seems like a really interesting concept and I'm still optimistic despite it having a somewhat low Goodreads rating for a new release. Climate change mixed with secrets and spying sounds like too fun of a time to pass up.
2. The House is on Fire - Rachel Beanland (Apr. 4)
Synopsis:
It’s the height of the winter social season. The General Assembly is in session, and
many of Virginia’s gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and
arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city’s only
theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand
of a populace that’s done looking for enlightenment in a church.
On the night after Christmas,
the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly
widowed Sally Henry Campbell, who is glad for any opportunity to relive the happy times she shared with
her husband. One floor away, in the colored gallery, Cecily Patterson doesn’t give a whit about the play
but is grateful for a four-hour reprieve from a life that has recently gone from bad to worse.
Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater’s managers, he’ll be
offered a permanent job with the company. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams
of one day being able to bring his wife to the theater, but he’ll have to buy her freedom
first.
When the theater goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack,
and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but those
of countless others. And in the days following the fire, as news of the disaster spreads across the
United States, the paths of these four people will become forever intertwined.
Why I'm Excited: My local Barnes & Noble stocked this one early, so I already have a copy picked up! I love the idea of niche historical fiction like this, especially with the mix of mystery that the synopsis hints at.
3. The Insatiable Volt Sisters - Rachel Eve Moulton (Apr. 4)
Synopsis:
It's the summer of 1989
and Beatrice and Henrietta Volt are coming of age on remote Fowler Island in Lake Erie, their ancestral
home and wild playground. Thicker than thieves, they plot their futures while their parents pick their
marriage apart piece by piece. The girls have no idea that their parents are separating. Or that the
plan is to separate
them
.
Ten years pass and Henrie gets a desperate call from her
sister--their father has died suddenly and B.B. needs Henrie to come back to the island for the funeral.
When Henrie arrives, the island seems even stranger than she remembers. But the truth is, she doesn't
remember much about the island, and nothing at all about the night she left. She just feels a vague and
perplexing sense of dread and a sharp fear of the quarry pond behind the house.
Why I'm Excited: Not to be confused with the cover of The House is on Fire, this book is my official Sleeper Pick of the Month. The plot is vague and this book is a thick one for a horror at 475 pages, but something about it is drawing me in.
4. House of Cotton - Monica Brashears (Apr. 4)
Synopsis:
Nineteen years old, broke, and
effectively an orphan, Magnolia doesn’t have much to look forward to. She feels stuck and haunted: by
her overdrawn bank account, by her predatory landlord, by the ghost of her late grandmother Mama
Brown.
One night while working at her dead-end gas station job, a mysterious, slick stranger
named Cotton walks in and offers to turn Magnolia’s luck around. He offers her a lucrative “modeling”
job at his family’s funeral home. Magnolia accepts. But despite things looking up, Magnolia’s problems
fatten along with her wallet. When Cotton’s requests become increasingly weird, Magnolia discovers
there’s a lot more at stake than just her rent.
Why I'm Excited: This book is about a girl who is offered a modeling job at a FUNERAL HOME I am worried already and I don't think I need to say any more.
5. Natural Beauty - Ling Ling Huang (Apr. 4)
Synopsis:
Our narrator produces a sound
from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her
parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an
accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and
wellness store in New York City.
Holistik is known for its remarkable products and
procedures—from remoras that suck out cheap Botox to eyelash extensions made of spider silk—and her new
job affords her entry into a world of privilege and a long-awaited sense of belonging. She becomes
transfixed by Helen, the niece of Holistik’s charismatic owner, and the two strike up a friendship that
hazily veers into more. All the while, our narrator is plied with products that slim her thighs, smooth
her skin, and lighten her hair. But beneath these creams and tinctures lies something
sinister.
Why I'm Excited: I'm here for music horror and also high-end luxury cultish lifestyle horror, neither of which I feel I read nearly enough of. I really hope this one is as horrifying as I feel it could be.
6. Homecoming - Kate Morton (Apr. 4)
Synopsis:
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve,
1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious
mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small
town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the
history of South Australia.
Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having
lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time
job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her
beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced
to the hospital.
Nora has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young
despite her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital, she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail
and confused. It’s even more alarming to hear from Nora's housekeeper that Nora had been distracted in
the weeks before her accident and had fallen on the steps to the attic—the one place Jess was forbidden
from playing in when she was small.
At loose ends in Nora's house, Jess does some digging of her
own. In Nora's bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a
long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims
through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous
crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold
case might be the best distraction she can find…
Why I'm Excited: This is probably the mostwidely anticipated popular book on this list. The plot is almost too long to summarize, but it sounds like a compelling mystery and a family saga all in one. A long book, but one I feel I don't want to miss.
7. The Trackers - Charles Frazier (Apr. 11)
Synopsis:
Hurtling past the
downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town
of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he's landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural
representing the region for their new Post Office.
A wealthy art lover named John Long and his
wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve
left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a western swing band. Long holds shady
political aspirations, but was once a WWI sniper--and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a
vestige of the violent old west. Val quickly finds himself entranced by their lives.
One day, Eve
flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road with a mission of
tracking her down. Journeying from ramshackle Hoovervilles to San Francisco nightclubs to the swamps of
Florida, Val's search for Eve narrows, and he soon turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes
for all of them.
Why I'm Excited: I don't think I've read a book that's set during the Great Depression before, which seems like a great oversight on my part. The cover is what drew me to this novel in the first place, but I look forward to seeing a Depression era mystery on my shelf soon.
8. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder - David Grann (Apr. 18)
Synopsis:
On January 28, 1742, a
ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were
thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of
His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during
an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as
"the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men,
after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a
hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.
But then... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the
coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The
thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded
with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It
became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions
fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the
Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were
life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
Why I'm Excited: It's been a few months since I've added a nonfiction new release to my list, and I'm especially excited for this one. I love microhistories that I know nothing about beforehand, and this one is written by the author of Killers of the Flower Moon. I'll probably opt to check out an audiobook of this from my library!
9. If We're Being Honest - Cat Shook (Apr. 18)
Synopsis:
When Gerry, the beloved
Williams patriarch, dies suddenly, his grandchildren flock from across the country to the family home in
Eulalia, Georgia. But when Gerry’s best friend steps up to the microphone to deliver his eulogy, the
funeral turns out unlike anyone expected. The cousins, left reeling and confused, cope with their fresh
grief and various private dramas. Delia, recently heartbroken, refuses to shut up about her ex. Her
sister Alice, usually confident, flusters when she spots her high school sweetheart, hiding a secret
that will change both of their lives. Outspoken, affable Grant is preening in the afterglow of his
recent appearance on The Bachelorette and looking to reignite an old flame with the least available
person in town. Meanwhile, his younger brother Red, unsure of himself and easily embarrassed,
desperately searches for a place in the boisterous family.
The cousins’ eccentric parents are in
tow, too, and equally lost—in love and in life. Watching over them all is Ellen, Gerry’s sweet and
proper widow, who does her best to keep her composure in front of the leering small town.
Why I'm Excited: I'm lucky enough to have received an e-ARC of this book, so I've already read it! Check out my review here .
10. Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues - Jonathan Kennedy (Apr. 18)
Synopsis:
According to the accepted
narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the
arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human
exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the
humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires.
Drawing on the latest research in fields
ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics,
Pathogenesis
takes
us through sixty thousand years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that
have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals,
the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European
colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower.
Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the
Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one
of the world's major religions.
Why I'm Excited: More nonfiction! I love the idea of sharing thousands of years of history through a specific lens, which is exactly this. It's short, at only 300 pages, and I'm always down for a good science book.
11. The Eden Test - Adam Sternbergh (Apr. 25)
Synopsis:
Daisy and Craig’s marriage is
in serious trouble. That’s why Daisy has signed up for The Eden Test, a week-long getaway for couples in
need of a fresh start. Yet even as she’s struggling to salvage her marriage, it seems Craig has plans to
leave her for another woman. In fact, his bags are already packed—long before he arrives to meet Daisy
in this remote cabin in the woods of upstate New York.
At first, their week away is marked by
solitude, connection, and natural beauty—and only a few hostile locals. But what Craig doesn’t know is
that Daisy, a slyly talented actress, has her own secrets, including a burner phone she’s been using for
mysterious texts. Not to mention the Eden Test itself, which poses a searing new question to the couple
every day, each more explosive than the last. Their marriage was never perfect, but now the lies and
revelations are piling up, as the week becomes much more than they bargained for…How far are they
willing to go?
Why I'm Excited: This is about as close to a domestic thriller as I'm willing to get with new releases these days, but the premise is intriguing and I'm always willing to give an author I haven't heard of a try. I hope the plot really ramps up in intensity from the synopsis; we'll just have to see!
12. In the Lives of Puppets - TJ Klune (Apr. 25)
Synopsis:
In a strange little home built
into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots--fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a
pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a
human, lives there too. They're a family, hidden and safe.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an
unfamiliar android labelled "HAP," he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio-a past spent
hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio's former life to their whereabouts,
the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the
City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic's assembled family must journey across an
unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse,
reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for
Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?
Why I'm Excited: I'm lucky enough to have received an e-ARC of this book, so I've already read it! Check out my review here .
13. Ascension - Nicholas Binge (Apr. 25)
Synopsis:
An enormous snow-covered
mountain has appeared in the Pacific Ocean. No one knows when exactly it showed up, precisely how big it
might be, or how to explain its existence. When Harold Tunmore, a scientist of mysterious phenomena, is
contacted by a shadowy organization to help investigate, he has no idea what he is getting into as he
and his team set out for the mountain.
The higher Harold’s team ascends, the less things make
sense. Time moves differently, turning minutes into hours, and hours into days. Amid the whipping cold
of higher elevation, the climbers’ limbs numb and memories of their lives before the mountain begin to
fade. Paranoia quickly turns to violence among the crew, and slithering, ancient creatures pursue them
in the snow. Still, as the dangers increase, the mystery of the mountain compels them to its peak, where
they are certain they will find their answers. Have they stumbled upon the greatest scientific discovery
known to man or the seeds of their own demise?
Why I'm Excited: Science fiction speculative horror might be my favorite genre combo of all time, and this book is checking all the right boxes for me. I've had this one on my list for a long time and it might just be my most anticipated of the month.
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Hope you all have a wonderful month and are getting some warmer weather than we are here! Our book club read for April isThe Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh, so grab or borrow a copy and feel free to join us!
Let me know if there are any books you're looking forward to in the comments!