Two heavy hitting anticipated new releases
Plus the delight in bookish discovery and three-for-one audiobooks
Hi readers!
Last night I went to a Boozy Book Fair—basically a pop-up bookstore in a bar near me. It was very crowded and the book selection was a little basic, but it still delighted me. What a wonderful way to spend an evening and a nostalgic reminder of the absolute joy of the Scholastic Book Fair.
It got me thinking about the feeling of poring over those Scholastic catalogs in elementary school or getting to go with my class to browse the pop up shelves in the school gym. I loved picking up the next book in whatever series I was obsessing over, but I was mostly excited to stumble across something completely unfamiliar to me (and pick up a new Magic Eye book, obviously).
I miss that feeling of delightful discovery when it comes to book browsing, and—in case there are others out there who feel the same—I want to know, where do you go to replicate that feeling? Shoutout your favorite bookstores or book blogs or podcasts…wherever you turn to stumble across a great book you never would have picked up otherwise. Let’s have our own little virtual book fair.
This week in books.
This week I read…
The Garden by Clare Beams (out 4/9). Beams’ debut novel The Illness Lesson was one of my favorite books of 2020. It is dark and weird. It’s powerfully feminist and provocatively emotional. And, with a setting and themes inspired by Louise May Alcott’s upbringing, it’s deeply intertwined in the American literary landscape. When I heard the premise of The Garden, it seemed clear that Beams was sticking with this winning recipe and deriving inspiration for her second novel from the horrors of historic reproductive healthcare and the classic girlhood novel The Secret Garden. And I loved it! The story follows Irene who, in 1948, has been accepted as a patient at a Berkshire mansion-turned-hospital for pregnant women who’ve experienced multiple miscarriages. Irene is somewhat ambivalent about pregnancy and motherhood, but her husband desperately wants a baby and she desperately wants to avoid another loss. During her time at the hospital, she begins to question the doctors’ methods and establishes herself as a contrarian among the other women. When she finds a secret garden on the grounds of the house, things take a surreal, possibly supernatural turn. I found this book to be so compelling—the plot gripped me and the writing is sharp and smart. Mostly, I found Beams’ exploration of themes to be so important and well-done. She examines maternal ambivalence, women’s medical treatment, and—most significantly—the way pregnancy is treated as something with a binary outcome. A successful pregnancy is one that results in a baby—but at what cost to the women themselves? My one minor complaint is that while I appreciated Irene’s rebellious spirit, I wanted to know more about her history to understand how she grew into such a confident, independent mid-century woman. Part of this issue may have been that I listened to much of this on audiobook. While I liked Carlotta Brentan’s narration, her choices created a more modern voice and atmosphere than I was expecting. Overall, while I think this is a book for a pretty particular audience (honestly, it feels like it was written just for me in the best way!) and content warnings abound, The Garden is a highlight of my 2024 reading so far and I will gladly eat up whatever Clare Beams serves us next. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes (out 4/16). I had no idea what to expect from this book and it blew me away. It’s the story of the Flattery family—four Irish sisters who lost their parents young and cleaved to each other for survival. Now in their mid-to-late-thirties, the sisters have spread across the globe and into disparate fields or work and study, still close but more and more divided by their views and their desires. When oldest sister Olwen goes off the grid, Rhona, Maeve, and Nell reunite in Ireland resulting in long buried secrets and resentments resurfacing. I adored this book. I do think it’s important for readers to know that this book is literary, slow, and introspective. From the publishers setup, it would be natural to think this book is a bit of a mystery or at least a juicy family novel. But it’s not either of those things. Instead, what Hughes has crafted is a vital exploration of contemporary human suffering and a gorgeous plea to take care of each other—in the personal and in policy. All of this is buried in an intimate character study and a highly original plot that never feels overly preachy or pedantic. I’m still mulling over some of the artistic choices, especially the pacing and the fractured structure (and the section labels!…so much to unpack there). I also wish I had read it on the page as the full cast audio didn’t do it for me, but I might use that as a reason to pick it back up once I do track down a print copy. But however you take it in, this book is top-notch writing that demands a lot of its readers, in a way I really appreciated. It’s lovely yet biting, and I’ll be surprised if it’s not on my best of the year list. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
Now I’m reading…
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. This is the April Buzzy Book of the Month for the FictionMatters Patreon community. I’d been holding off on reading it closer to our discussion, and I’m excited to finally pick it up. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
Links I love.
To celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, Libro.fm is offering new members three audiobooks for the price of one! They give new users a two-for-one deal year round, so now is the time to sign up if you’ve been considering it. It’s the best and easiest way to support your favorite independent bookstores and your audiobook habit.
The best books of the year (so far). (Vulture)
I can’t read enough profiles of Percival Everett. This one is great. (Guardian)
Carrie turned 50 and I have yet to read a Stephen King novel! I might use this guide as inspiration. (NYT / NPR)
This Ripley review is a pan, and I’m bummed! The book is phenomenal, and I was eager for a new adaptation. (Vox)
Gabrielle Zevin on what makes David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas so perfect—I still haven’t read it! (Guardian)
Looks like the first 2025 book to go on my most-anticipated list is…a collection of poetry?! (Atlantic)
End notes.
This week in views, listens, eats, and moments of joy.
I made this carbonara and it was so easy. Definitely going in the recurring rotation.
We’ve been watching the Women’s NCAA tournament along with the rest of America. The coolest part for me is that Louise loves basketball and she gets SO excited to see girls playing.
I finally caught up on The Runthrough and I really appreciated the crew’s breakdown of the World Championships. I’m really hoping this podcast will continue into the 2026 Olympic season.
Louise is back in school after spring break and this might have been her best week every. It’s so fun now that she’s able to give us a full debrief on the day. I especially love when she tells me who was missing from class—I don’t know I just find it delightful!
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Happy reading!
Sara
I’m very interested in The Alternatives, and I appreciate your advice about reading it in print - noted!
As for book discovery, my only local new-book bookstore is our beloved Barnes and Noble and I adore going there to wander for as long as I want and sit on the floor and get a drink and lose my daughters (they’re not little, don’t worry!) in the aisles as we all get lost in our own worlds. But I also love practicing bookstore tourism by making indie bookstores a destination in themselves when I travel. I know many people love used bookstores, but they are usually just too disorganized and chaotic for me to handle ~ it’s sensory overload and I get overwhelmed quickly. I also of course love the library and when I have time to do more than pick up holds, I’ll wander back into the stacks and just start grabbing. It’s so fun to find something I have never heard of before in these places! One I just picked up at BN is Still True by Maggie Ginsberg, and its is blurbed with “I could stay in this story for years!” By Luis Alberto Urrea and is set in my own state of Wisconsin! I can’t wait to read it.
One last thing ~ re: book fairs at school, as a librarian I have stopped hosting these because the inequity is just too sad for me to see. The haves come and shop, the have-nots don’t get to, and Scholastic has now made their fairs so heavy with toys and non-book items that the books seem almost like an afterthought. Many schools are forced to hold these book fairs to raise money for necessary supplies and it just breaks my heart that our public education system is so broken. Our school now has a book cafe every year where each kid can get two brand-new books and one used one, and this is funded via Title I dollars. We’re hoping to expand it to twice a year next year!
Whew, that was a lot - thanks for your amazing newsletters ❤️
I loved The Scholastic book fairs as a kid too. As far as in person browsing these days, my favorite place to browse is my local Barnes and Noble. Their shelf talkers aren't great but I always end of finding a book or 2 I hadn't heard of