Books Coming Out in April
Book Roundup - Books Coming Out in April
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Books coming out April 1-6:
Cleopatra's Dagger by Carole Lawrence
A journalist in nineteenth-century New York matches wits with a serial killer in a gripping thriller by the prizewinning author of the Ian Hamilton Mysteries.
Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory and Family by Madhushree Ghosh
Khabaar is an expansion of Ghosh’s essay that received Notable Mention in The Best American Food Writing 2020, “At the Maacher Bazaar, Fish for Life” and weaves together contemplations on the diasporic experience through the eyes of food stall owners, household cooks, and professional chefs of color, asking a simple question: “What does it mean to feel at home?” – particularly through the foods we make. Ghosh also examines her own immigration experience as a woman of color in science, a woman who left an abusive marriage, and a woman who keeps her parents’ memory alive through her Bengali food. Relying on historical and anecdotal research on how food traveled, Khabaar addresses the question of what in food morphs when immigrants adopt another country? What stays the same and evokes the memories of a country long gone? What is passed down through the generations in the adopted country, making the cooking integrally immigrant cuisine?
Untethered: Faith, Failure, and Finding Solid Ground by Laura Whitfield
Untethered follows a young woman’s quest to find hope and stability after a devastating personal loss. This coming-of-age memoir takes readers from North Carolina’s Outer Banks to disco-era New York City and home again, as the author overcomes shame, embraces faith, and learns that taking risks and failing can lead to a bigger life than she dared to imagine.
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Pitched as The Farewell meets Ocean's Eleven, PORTRAIT OF A THIEF is a lyrically written heist novel based on a true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums; about diaspora, unlikely friendships, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.
Welcome to the Neighborhood by Lisa Roe
When a free-spirited single mom gets re-married, she and her quirky pre-teen move from Queens to her new husband’s home in an upscale Jersey suburb. Spoiler: an epic show-down ensues. Imagine a thirty-something Lorelai Gilmore taking on a small army of rabid, social-climbing Real Housewives. May the best mom win!
Forever Boy: A Mother's Memoir of Autism and Finding Joy by Kate Swenson
Kate Swenson's world stopped when her toddler, Cooper, was diagnosed with severe, nonverbal autism. Cooper is now eleven, with three younger siblings, and Kate shares posts and videos of their day-to-day life in the community of 730K+ that she’s built across her blog, and social media. In her upcoming Forever Boy: A Mother's Memoir of Autism and Finding Joy, Kate shares her family’s story, raw, honest, and uplifting. Forever Boy will speak to all audiences: it’s not only an honest, inspiring journey relatable to any family with autism in their lives, it’s also an eye-opening look for those who don’t.
Lost and Found in Paris by Lian Dolan
From the author of The Sweeney Sisters comes an exciting and escapist adventure to Paris told with wit, style, and a touch of intrigue. When Joan’s life is upended by a scandalous secret, she books a last-minute trip to Paris as an art courier. But after a romantic night with a stranger when she finds the art is missing, she’s going to need to recover the lost art, her own sense of adventure, and possibly find something even better along the way.
The Baba Yaga Mask by Kris Spisak
When their Ukrainian grandmother is lost on a trans-Atlantic flight, a supermom and her free-spirited sister are swept into a quest across eastern Europe to find the woman who had always told more tales than truths. From Poland to Slovakia to Hungary and beyond, Larissa and Ira navigate the steps of Ukrainian folk dance, the cliff-side paths of Slovak Paradise National Park, and the stark realities of war, folktales, and feminism, all for the sake of chasing who they’re starting to believe is a true Baba Yaga. Understanding their family’s roots has never been more clear.
The #PACE Process for Early Career Success by Mark Zides
The career landscape is rockier than ever, and navigating it takes more than just a resume if you want to find your perfect job. The #PACE Process for Early Career Success is designed to help you unlock the mindset, traits, and techniques needed to Plan, Apply for, Commit to, and Evaluate your ideal career path. Whether you plan to enter the corporate world, join a startup, or start your own business, you will learn how to build a network, master interviewing skills, leverage your personal brand, and even how and when to move on to your next opportunity. Leveraging more than twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur, businessman, and CEO, Mark teachers young adults the skills they need to get their feet in the door, climb the ladder, and not stop achieving until they find success. Using real life examples, research, and a little tough love, The PACE Process for Early Career Success will equip you to not just survive the modern workforce, but to conquer it.
The Shadow House by Anna Downes
Alex, a single mother-of-two, is determined to make a fresh start for her and her children. In an effort to escape her troubled past, she seeks refuge in a rural community. Pine Ridge is idyllic; the surrounding forests are beautiful and the locals welcoming. Mostly.
But Alex finds that she may have disturbed barely hidden secrets in her new home. As a chain of bizarre events is set off, events eerily familiar to those who have lived there for years, Alex realizes that she and her family might be in greater danger than ever before. And that the only way to protect them all is to confront the shadows lurking in Pine Ridge.
Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan
When Savannah history professor Everly Winthrop is asked to guest curate a new museum collection focusing on artifacts recovered from the steamship Pulaski, she’s shocked. The ship sank after a boiler explosion in 1838, and the wreckage was just discovered, 180 years later. Everly can’t resist trying to solve some of the mysteries and myths surrounding the devastating night of its sinking. Everly’s research leads her to the astounding history of a family of eleven who boarded the Pulaski together, and the extraordinary stories of two women from this family: a known survivor, Augusta Longstreet, and her niece, Lilly Forsyth, who, along with her child, was never found. These aristocratic women were part of Savannah’s society, but when the ship exploded, each was faced with difficult and heartbreaking decisions. This is a moving and powerful exploration of what women will do to endure in the face of tragedy, the role fate plays and the myriad ways we survive the surviving.
XO by Sara Rauch
Sara Rauch is in a long-term, committed relationship with another woman when she begins a low-residency MFA in fiction. Though it goes against the promises she’s made, she finds herself pulled into an intense affair with a married man, a well-known writer in the program. More than an essay about bisexual infidelity and the resulting heartbreaks, XO unfolds Rauch’s story like a map of psychic terrain, allowing the author to explore her longstanding obsessions with romantic love, personal faith and belief systems, and the stories we tell ourselves to get through our ever changing lives.
Boss Witch by Ann Aguirre
The second in an adorable witchy rom-com series by New York Times bestselling
author Ann Aguirre, perfect for fans of:
· Ride-or-die female friendships
· A heroine who stubbornly refuses to
accept help
· A hero with an incredibly pesky moral
conscience
· A mouse named Benson who may or may
not have all the answers to life, magic,
and love (Spoiler: he does!)
Girls of Flight City by Lorraine Heath
Inspired by true events, a breathtaking WWII historical novel about the brave American women who trained the British Royal Air Force, by New York Times bestselling author Lorraine Heath.
La Nijinska by Lynn Garafola
La Nijinska is the first biography of twentieth-century ballet's premier female choreographer.
Overshadowed in life and legend by her brother Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska had a far longer and more productive career. An architect of twentieth-century neoclassicism, she experienced the transformative power of the Russian Revolution and created her greatest work - Les Noces - under the influence of its avant-garde. Many of her ballets rested on the probing of gender boundaries, a mistrust of conventional gender roles, and the heightening of the ballerina's technical and artistic prowess.
Books coming out April 11-13:
Doctor Glass: A Psychological Thriller Novel
Psychotherapist Emma-Jane Glass has prioritized work over leisure for far too long. She does whatever it takes to help her clients, and it's bordering on professional obsession. When she publishes a controversial article about unstable mothers murdering their children, an anonymous letter arrives on her doorstep.
The Human Herd: Awakening Our Natural Leadership by Beth Anstandig
COVID-19 woke us up, sharpening our senses to the delicate nature of our physical and mental health, the need for community and real connection, and the desire for a new way to lead and experience life.The Human Herd: Awakening Our Natural Leadership (On sale: April 12, 2022; Morgan James Publishing; paperback; 9781631956935) answers this call.
For more than 25 years, and with an ever-growing menagerie of animals at her California ranch, licensed psychotherapist, lifelong cowgirl and author, Beth Anstandig has worked with human herds providing leadership, corporate culture, and well-being programs through The Circle Up Experience. She’s trained thousands of CEOs, managers, and teams from Fortune 1000 companies, universities, and nonprofits, helping them tap into their Natural Leadership to live, lead and work with genuine connection. Circle Up’s model of Natural Leadership and experiential learning with horses integrates human psychology, animal behavior, and natural systems to offer a unique approach to personal and professional development.
The Human Herd shows us how to reclaim the innate power of our human animal to access a new source of information, allowing us to better respond to these extraordinary pressures and build more authentic relationships in our lives and work. This is the Natural Leadership, a model Beth pioneered, and it allows us to move through the world with a keen advantage that benefits our entire human herd.
What We Give, What We Take by Randi Triant
In 1967, Fay Stonewell, a water tank escape artist in Florida, leaves for Vietnam to join the Amazing Humans—a jerry-rigged carnival there to entertain the troops—abandoning her disabled teenage son, Dickie, to the care of an abusive boyfriend. Months after Fay’s departure, Dickie’s troubled home life ends in a surprising act of violence that forces him to run away. He soon lands in Manhattan, where he’s taken in by eccentric artist Laurence Jones. Fay, meanwhile, is also facing dangerous threats. From the night her plane jolts onto a darkened Saigon runway, she is forced to confront every bad decision she’s ever made as she struggles to return to her son. But the Humans owner is hell-bent on keeping her in Vietnam, performing only for war-injured children at a hospital, daily reminders of the son she’s left behind. Decades later, Dickie is forty, living in a Massachusetts coastal town with a man who’s dying of AIDS, and doing everything he can to escape his past. But although Spin may be giving Dickie what he’s always wanted—a home without wheels—it seems that the farther Dickie runs, the tighter the past clings to him.
Ultimately, What We Give, What We Take is a deeply moving story of second chances and rising above family circumstances, however dysfunctional they may be.
Just the Two of Us by Joe Wilde
A couple on the brink of divorce after 35 years of marriage gets a second chance to rediscover their love now that a pandemic lockdown has forced them to spend more time together.
The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann
Thirty, flirty, and asexual Joy is secretly in love with her best friend Malcolm, but she’s never been brave enough to say so. When she learns of Malcolm’s new girlfriend, it’s the motivation she needs to confess her feelings to him. Or better yet, Joy could fake-date said new girlfriend’s best friend Fox, in an attempt to help Malcolm realize his love for Joy on his own. But we all know how well a fake-dating plot turns out… Could Fox end up being the romantic partner she’s always deserved?
God of Neverland by Gama Ray Martinez
In this magical re-imagining of J. M. Barrie’s classic tale, Michael Darling—the youngest of the Darling siblings and former Lost Boy, now all grown up—must return to the life he left behind to save Neverland from the brink of collapse and keep humanity safe from magical and mythological threats, as well as answer the ultimate question: Where is Peter Pan?
American Blues by Polly Hamilton Hilsabeck
This coming spring, introduce your audience to a powerful new novel about racism and sexism in America. Perfect for book club discussions, American Blues by Polly Hamilton Hilsabeck (She Writes Press; April 12, 2022; paperback original; 978-1647420772) spans from the early 1970s through the 1990s and opens with a trailblazing female Episcopal seminarian who confronts white brutality and her own feelings on race, when she accompanies her boss—Episcopal Church Executive Officer—to South Carolina in the immediate aftermath of Black church sexton Sam Jefferson’s lynching.
Returning home to Manhattan, race awareness continues to grow as Lily Vida Wallace proceeds with her theological studies, then ordination at St. Philip’s Harlem after the historic 1976 Episcopal Church vote to “regularize” women’s ordination to the priesthood.
Two decades later, Lily—now married with children and serving Holy Innocents in Oakland, California—officiates for high-profile interracial nuptials drawing national headlines, as well as the fiery journalist she met in South Carolina in the wake of Sam Jefferson’s lynching. Leaving Oakland, Lucius Clay’s LA Times assignment is to cover Black church burnings starting with Lily’s hometown in Texas. This richly drawn American story will echo and challenge readers’ own assumptions about race and gender in American society as they follow Lily’s story.
The No-Show by Beth O'Leary
THE NO-SHOW begins on Valentine’s Day with three seemingly unrelated women realizing they’ve all been stood up by the man of their dreams… which just so happens to be the same man. Where is Joseph Carter? Is there more to him than meets the eye? And will they each untangle the truth before they all get their hearts broken?
All of these questions and more will be answered in this surprisingly moving contemporary romance that highlights the challenges of dating, grief, toxic relationships, and the strength of female friendships.
Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman
A restless young journalist with big dreams interviews a Hollywood heartthrob—and reunites with him ten years later to discover exactly how he feels about her in this sexy and engrossing novel.
Summer at the Cape by RaeAnne Thayne
From the beloved bestselling author of Season of Wonder and The Cliff House comes a poignant and uplifting novel about forgiveness, family and all the complications—and joy—that come with it.
The Hills Be Shaken by Michael Stewart
Mose Haley is an engineer recruited by the FBI following a major dam collapse that is suspected to be the work of terrorists. Mose wants to believe he has the grit for the job, but he is an engineer. He has never had to face rooftop gunfire or diffuse a bomb in a playground with sweaty hands and a paperclip. Mose Haley has never been tested . . . until now.
Books coming out April 19:
An Upside Down Sky by Linda Dahl
Carrying a private burden, the protagonist, Lidia tours a Southeast Asian country re-opened to the world after a long dictatorship. Against a backdrop of pagodas and enigmatic customs, she and the disparate group encounter adventures challenging their assumptions and Lidia embarks on a love affair with a surprising conclusion. It adds up to much more than a vacation.
Hope, a History of the Future: A Novel by G.G. Kellner
One quiet afternoon in 2037, Joyce Denzell hears a thud in her family’s home library and finds a book lying in the middle of the room, seemingly waiting for her―a book whose copyright page says it was published in the year 2200. Over the next twenty-four hours, each of the Denzell family members discovers and reads from this mystical history book from the future, nudged along by their cat, Plato. As the various family members take turns reading, they gradually uncover the story of Gabe, Mia, and Ruth—a saga of adventure, endurance, romance, mystery, and hope that touches them all deeply. Along the way, the Denzells all begin to believe that this book that has seemingly fallen out of time and space and into their midst might actually be from the future—and that it might have something vitally important to teach them. Engaging, playful, and thought-provoking, Hope is a seven-generation-spanning vision of the future as it could be—based on scientific projections, as well as historical and legal precedence—that will leave readers grappling with questions of destiny, responsibility, and the possibility for hope in a future world.
A Stream to Follow by Jess Wright
Internationally recognized psychiatrist Jess Wright has penned his first book of fiction, “A Stream to Follow," a thrilling and heartwarming tale of healing from post-war trauma. When Bruce Duncan, a battlefront surgeon, returns after WWII to a small town in Pennsylvania to open a general practice, the ravages of his war aren’t over. Haunted by images of soldiers he tried to save, his own near-death experiences, and a lost love, Bruce has little respite before new battles grip him. Bruce’s brother, a decorated fighter pilot, is facing his own trauma, and refuses to accept help. A former friend wages a vicious campaign to stop Bruce from uncovering the dangers of silicosis, which is taking the lives of workers in town. And Bruce must decide between the slim prospect of reuniting with the Englishwoman he fell for, and a growing attraction to a trail-blazing woman doctor. “A Stream to Follow” gives fresh vision for paths to healing, and is ultimately an uplifting tale of valor, resilience, and the search for enduring love.
Shadows of Berlin by David R. Gillham
1955 in New York City: the city of instant coffee, bagels at Katz’s Deli, ultra-modern TVs. But in the Perlman’s walk-up in Chelsea, the past is as close as the present. Rachel came to Manhattan in a wave of displaced Jews who managed to survive the horrors of war. Her Uncle Fritz fleeing with her, Rachel hoped to find freedom from her pain in New York and in the arms of her new American husband, Aaron. But this child of Berlin and daughter of an artist cannot seem to outrun her guilt in the role of American housewife, not until she can shed the ghosts of her past. And when Uncle Fritz discovers, in a dreary midtown pawn shop, the most shocking portrait that her mother had ever painted, Rachel’s memories begin to terrorize her, forcing her to face the choices she made to stay alive—choices that might be her undoing.
Open Deeply by Kate Loree
A full one-fifth of the United States has engaged in consensual non-monogamy (CNM) at some point in their lives, and 29 percent of adults under thirty today consider open relationships to be morally acceptable—yet there are few resources to turn to when it comes to navigating this more non-traditional and explorative territory.
Picking up where CNM self-help books like Opening Up, The Ethical Slut, and More Than Two leave off, Open Deeply tackles the most difficult challenges posed by CNM. Therapist Kate Loree—who has practiced non-monogamy since 2003, and who specializes in treating clients who also practice non-monogamy—pulls no punches as she uses vignettes based on her own life, as well as her clients’ experiences, to illustrate the highs, lows, and in-betweens of life as a consensual non-monogamist. Interwoven with these stories are thorough explanations of how attachment theory impacts non-monogamy, how blending cutting-edge, neurobiology-informed grounding skills with effective communication skills will make even the most challenging conversations regarding non-monogamy manageable, and more. The result is a compassionate, attachment-focused template for non-monogamy that will allow readers to avoid pitfalls and find adventure while concurrently building healthy relationships.
Non-monogamy is a wild and woolly ride—and Open Deeply is here to help make it a great one.
Pesticide by Kim Hays
When a rave on a hot summer night erupts into violent riots, a young man is found the next morning bludgeoned to death with a policeman’s club. Seasoned detective Giuliana Linder is assigned to the case. That same day, an elderly organic farmer turns up dead and drenched with pesticide. Enter Giuliana’s younger colleague Renzo Donatelli to investigate the second murder. Giuliana’s disappointment that they’re on two different cases is tinged with relief—her home life is complicated enough without having to deal with the distractingly attractive Renzo.
But when an unexpected discovery ties the two victims into a single case, Giuliana and Renzo are thrown closer together than ever before. Dangerously close. Will Giuliana be able to handle the threats to her marriage and to her assumptions about the police? If she wants to prevent another murder, she’ll have to put her life on the line—and her principles.
The Paris Showroom by Juliet Blackwell
Capucine Benoit works alongside her father to produce fans of rare feathers, beads, and intricate pleating for the haute couture fashion houses. But after the Germans invade Paris in June 1940, Capucine and her father must focus on mere survival—until they are betrayed to the secret police and arrested for his political beliefs. When Capucine saves herself from deportation to Auschwitz by highlighting her connections to Parisian design houses, she is sent to a little-known prison camp located in the heart of Paris, within the Lévitan department store.
There, hundreds of prisoners work to sort through, repair, and put on display the massive quantities of art, furniture, and household goods looted from Jewish homes and businesses. Forced to wait on German officials and their wives and mistresses, Capucine struggles to hold her tongue in order to survive, remembering happier days spent in the art salons, ateliers, and jazz clubs of Montmartre in the 1920s.
Boys and Girls Screaming by Kern Carter
The book first introduces us to Candace, a young black girl who was abandoned by her mother as a toddler, and adopted into a wealthy, white family. In this world, she meets Ever, who becomes her best friend and more like a sister, and Ever’s younger brother Jericho, who is only a year younger, but struggling to be seen as an equal by his sister (and to get Candace to notice his crush on her). Ever is popular, confident, and accomplished. She has a plan for everything and is willing to work tirelessly to create the world she imagines. Tragedy is a presence in other people’s lives, not hers. But darkness is unavoidable, even for Ever. When her father dies suddenly, she is devastated. And when her mom has a stroke shortly after, it becomes almost too much for her to handle. That’s when she gets the idea to form the group she calls Boys and Girls Screaming, or BAGS for short. Ever’s goal is to bring together kids from her school who have also suffered trauma so they can share their stories and heal themselves. Candace leans on the group when her estranged mother reemerges, throwing rocks at her family’s windows, and Jericho brings in friends who, like him, suffer silently while seeking solace in drugs. Soon, the group becomes an integral part of each member’s life, as they bond over their shared trauma and lean on each other as they begin to heal. But Ever still struggles with a dark family secret she believes she can’t share with anyone, not even the group that was her idea. She tumbles further into depression until she reaches a breaking point, and the BAGS must band together to learn the true source of her trauma, and to help her finally find her way out.
One Lucky Summer by Jenny Oliver
In a tumbledown cottage in Willoughby’s grounds, Dolly and Olive King lived with their eccentric explorer father. One of the last things he did was to lay a treasure hunt before he died, but when events took an unexpected turn, Dolly and Olive left Willoughby for good, never to complete it. But when Ruben uncovers a secret message, hidden for decades, he knows he needs Olive and Dolly’s help. Can the three of them solve the treasure hunt, and will piecing together the clues help them understand what happened to their families that summer, all those years ago?
Books coming out on April 26:
Feeling Fate: A Memoir of Love, Intuition, and Spirit by Joni Sensel
From nearly the start of their fairy tale romance, Joni Sensel knew she would lose Tony, the man she considered to be her soul mate. He was in great health, but fate had other plans--a hard truth that visited Joni in the form of a startling vision during their second weekend together. Though she kept the premonition a secret while Tony was alive, upon his death she's compelled to share it with his spirit in the form of a letter. A grief memoir with a paranormal twist, "Feeling Fate" explores how a dark intuition magnified Sensel's love and gratitude in the time she and Tony had together before her premonition came true. Faced with evidence of a grand design alongside her grief, she's torn between faith and skepticism. Nearly undone by the pain of her loss, she eventually discovers that the irrational insights of the heart can both defeat despair and transform her grief into meaning.
Pillar of Salt: A Daughter's Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust by Anna Salton Eisen
As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Anna Salton Eisen breaks the silence that was intended as a protective shield against the unspeakable past in her new memoir, PILLAR OF SALT: A Daughter's Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Mandel Vilar Press Trade Paperback Original; April 26, 2022; $19.95). A new voice in Holocaust literature, Anna begins this heart-wrenching memoir as she looks back to her own youth when she discovers two
hidden watercolor paintings depicting the horrors of the Holocaust and sets out to uncover the truth of her father’s past. Her quest leads her on a journey to unlock a history sealed in silence and buried by time. With her father as her guide, she travels through the picturesque Polish countryside pockmarked by the remnants of former concentration camps and sites of desolate Holocaust memorials. Together with her family, they return to the ghetto where her
father’s imprisonment in ten concentration camps over three years began. They also find their way back to his boyhood town and into his childhood home where painful memories exist, but strangers now live. Through her keen observations and open heart, Anna combines the meticulous work of an archaeologist with the compassionate perspective of a daughter.
Wedding Season by Michelle Major
Mariella Jacob was one of the world’s premier bridal designers, but one viral PR disaster later, she’s trying to get her torpedoed career back on track in small-town Magnolia, North Carolina. With a secondhand store and a new business venture helping her friends turn the Wildflower Inn into a wedding venue, Mariella is finally putting at least one mistake behind her. Until that mistake—in the glowering, handsome form of Alex Ralsten—moves to Magnolia too. While he’s furious when they’re forced to work together, there’s no denying Mariella is hardworking, talented…and gorgeous. In fact, though Alex keeps reminding himself that they’re enemies, something deeper is growing…daring them to admit that a rocky past might lead to something unexpectedly wonderful.
