Our Most Anticipated New Book Releases of April 2022

Born with a rare congenital condition called sacral agenesis, Chloe Cooper Jones’ groundbreaking memoir, Easy Beauty, weaves memory, observation, experience and aesthetic philosophy to dissect the conventional standards of beauty. Perfect for fans of Wintering by Katherine May and Hunger by Roxane Gay. “Easy Beauty is bold, honest, and superbly well-written. Chloé Cooper Jones is ruthless in probing our weakest and darkest areas, and does so with grace, humor, and ultimately, with something one seldom finds: kindness and humanity.” —André Aciman, author of Call Me By Your Name

Chloe joins us on our podcast, Poured Over, this month. 

From Vancouver Island in 1912 to a second moon colony 300 years later, after a pandemic leaves Earth uninhabitable, bringing in characters and events from The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven as well as new. Fans of Emily St. John Mandel are in for a treat with this timely story of time travel and metaphysics. Emily St. John Mandel’s episode of Poured Over airs April 5^th. 

All’s fair in love and chemistry. It’s 1960s California and there are certain things that women just don’t do. When scientist Elizabeth Zott finds herself the host of a television cooking show, she kicks off a revolution that does more than just challenge the status quo. You will fall in love with the cast of characters in this witty, funny debut novel that has already been picked up as an Apple TV+ series. The B&N Exclusive Edition includes an extra chapter, designed endpapers, and an interview with Elizabeth Zott, the main character.  Bonnie Garmus joins us on Poured Over this month. 

The Candy House is Jennifer Egan’s incandescent “sibling novel” to Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit From the Goon Squad.  Told in different interlocking narrative styles, this is an intellectually moving story of real human connection — and while you don’t need to have read A Visit From the Goon Squad before you read The Candy House, it’s a real treat to revisit Sasha and Bennie and the rest of the cast. Be sure to tune into the Poured Over podcast on April 7^th for our 100^th episode featuring Jennifer Egan.  

What are you willing to do for fifty million dollars, fame and the chance to right the wrongs of colonialism? Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell in this punchy, cinematic caper novel inspired by the story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums. Grace D. Li examines Chinese American history and the aftermath of colonialism in this thrilling and thought-provoking debut. Perfect for fans of Interior Chinatown and Sex and Vanity. Grace joins us on Poured Over April 9^th. 

Sara Nović follows up her indelible debut novel, Girl at War, with a coming-of-age story following students at a boarding school for the Deaf that you’ll be thinking about long after the last page is turned. (Hint: True biz (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk.) A transporting novel that fans of The Girl with the Louding Voice and A Burning will enjoy. 

Anna is a renowned nuclear scientist, Molly is an aspiring artist who has created her own comic series, Atomic Anna, and Raisa is a math prodigy. Three generations of intelligent women must work together to save their futures and prevent the events of their past from nuclear disaster by unlocking the key to time travel. From the author of A Bend in the Stars, “Atomic Anna is a dazzling work of ingenuity and imagination.”―Téa Obreht, author of Inland 

This stunning debut is a reimagining of the ancient Indian epic, the Ramayana, and it follows Kaikeyi, a woman raised on the stories of the gods. When she finds that she has some magic of her own, she toes the line between duty and rebellion, doing what’s best for the women in her kingdom and what’s expected of her. This is the perfect read for fans of Circe.

Telling stories is how we share our history.  This vibrant debut tells the story of three generations of Black women and one young woman’s path to breaking the bond of generational trauma and healing through art. Covering themes of brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love, Memphis is a love letter to the author’s city and the Black women who inhabit it, pulling from her own familial experiences.  

Don’t tell. We’ve secretly got a crush on Laura Clery, but it can’t be much of a surprise for someone who can be found on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Frankly, there’s never enough Clery. It’s for certain because of her sense of humor and her ability to bring her life to our life. Nothing is held back. We laugh and gasp the whole time. So happy to get this follow-up to her 2019 book, simply entitled Idiot. (Singular and spectacular.)

Now we’ve done it. We got everyone’s supreme being up in arms. Luckily, David Javerbaum is at hand to translate for us. Laughter truly is the best medicine in this new Biblical scripture from God and Emmy Award–winning comedy writer David Javerbaum. Perfect for fans of The Last Testament and Strange Planet.

If you were as moved by Ocean Vuong’s novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous as we were, then now is the moment to absorb his poetry in Time Is a Mother. And then we urge you to go back to his debut poetry book, Night Sky with Exit Wounds. Voung’s lyrical writing runs through all his books — whether poetry or prose. You will always do right to keep his work at the ready.

Janelle Monae does it all: Singer-songwriter, actress, producer, fashion icon and now author, with the publication of The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories From Dirty Computer,based on the album of the same name. Building off of speculative writers like Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor, The Memory Librarian explores themes of queerness, race, gender plurality, and love as well as space, time and the power of memory. 

The Library of the Dead was our March Speculative Fiction Pick so the timing could not be more perfect for T. L. Huchu’s second installment in the Edinburgh Nights series. When Ropa Moyo’s ghostalking business goes under, she takes a job researching a patient at the Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments hospital to earn a little extra money. When she discovers an evil spirit threatens the lives of the students at a boy’s school for magic, she sets off to put an end to it. 

Have you seen The Moth’s staged shows? Or listened to The Moth Podcast? If not, you are in for a treat — unscripted monologues where the storytellers give us something of themselves: a life story, a moment of vulnerability, a time to say, “I am human like you.” We could not want more from a storyteller. How to Tell a Story shows us ALL how to rise to the occasion. This is a master class on standing in front of an audience. Bravo!

It’s been too long since we’ve had such a formidable contemporary true-crime book to add to your shelf. Place this one next to Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and Billy Jensen’s Chase Darkness with Me.