With a heavy month of travel, I wasn’t expecting to get much reading done in April, but somehow I managed to finish eight books this month. I got really lucky with the ARCs (Advance Reader Copies). This is exactly why I signed up for NetGalley! Luckily you won’t have to wait too long for my favorites to be published. Most of them are coming this summer, including exciting new novels from Dave Eggers, Tia Williams, Kathryn Stockett, and Richard Russo.

This post contains affiliate links and I may make a small commission at no cost to you if you click through and make a purchase.

Top Picks

Ben Lerner’s new novel Transcription is a slim volume exploring memory and technology in three parts, each named after a hotel relevant to the action. In the first, an unnamed narrator travels to Providence to interview his elderly former academic mentor, feeling as if he’s going back in time as he faces backwards on the train and revisits memories of his time as a student at Brown. He drops his phone in the undrained sink in the hotel bathroom and is forced to conduct the interview without recording it. In the second part he faces the consequences of this decision. The third part is narrated by his old college friend and the son of his mentor as he reflects on his father’s role in his life. Lerner tackles a number of themes around memory, fatherhood, and technology in a very short and readable novel. This is my first Lerner novel and it engaged me enough to put a few of his others on my TBR. Get your copy at Bookshop.

The Poppy Fields

Nikki Erlick

Somewhere in the California desert lies The Poppy Fields, a controversial treatment center where the grief-stricken can sleep away their pain. After several weeks, most sleepers wake up lighter, ready to move forward. But for 25 percent of them, the treatment comes with a devastating side effect: they lose all affection for the person they’ve lost. Told through five characters on their way to the Fields, each carrying their own loss, the novel explores grief, love, and resilience. While The Poppy Fields is a speculative novel, it’s more about the emotional reality of mourning and moving on than the treatment technology itself, and it tugs at the heartstrings. I enjoyed it overall, but it may be a difficult read for someone grieving a recent or painful loss. Get your copy at Bookshop.

My Recommendations – Coming Soon

The Missed Connection

Tia Williams

After bonding with a sexy, mysterious stranger on a flight, casting agent Sasha Cruz hires Wes, a private detective, to track down the man in Seat F. Sasha and Wes have a complicated past, and as they search for “Seat F,” old feelings, intense attraction, and plenty of messy baggage resurface. The story is as much about healing and figuring out what you really want in life as it is about finding the right person to spend it with. Tia Williams nails this second-chance/friends-to-lovers romance. I highly recommend The Missed Connection for anyone looking for a big-hearted, fresh, and real romance novel. 

The Missed Connection will be published in June – come back then for my full review. Pre-order your copy from Bookshop. Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Contrapposto

Dave Eggers

In Contrapposto, Dave Eggers tells a captivating story of art and love through the life of Cricket Dib, a Midwestern boy who discovers he can draw around the same time that he falls in love with a fearless, golden-eyed girl named Olympia. Cricket gets caught helplessly in Olympia’s fierce energy and never manages to escape her pull over the six decades of the story. Despite time and distance separating them, what never changes is their friendship and love. From Indiana to Cambodia to New York to Paris, the book interrogates the meaning of art (while gently satirizing it) through the various forms of artmaking that Cricket’s career takes. While Contrapposto is a book about art, it’s ultimately a love story drawn over time – and a gorgeous one at that. The ending filled my soul. 

Contrapposto will be published in June – come back then to read my full review. Pre-order your copy at Bookshop. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

More from This Month

The Calamity Club

Kathryn Stockett

In The Calamity Club, Kathryn Stockett returns with a richly detailed story following Birdie, a sheltered young woman drawn into her sister’s complicated life in Depression-era Mississippi, and Meg, a lovable orphan living in harsh conditions. As financial troubles mount and secrets unravel, Birdie and a disparate group of women band together to save themselves from ruin. There are many strong, well developed female characters in this book, fighting together against the challenges that women faced in this time period. At its heart, this is an immersive and big-hearted story about female friendship in all its forms, told in vivid historical detail, if a bit slow and lengthy at 600+ pages. 

Read my full review of The Calamity Club and get your copy at Bookshop. Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for the ARC. All opinions are my own. 

The Academy

Elin Hilderbrand and her daughter Shelby Cunningham

I’ve read several of Elin Hilderbrand’s Nantucket novels and enjoyed the cast of characters and detail that make her stories feel so real and lived. The Academy takes place over the course of a school year on the tony campus of a private New England boarding school and has the same level of detail, dialogue, and pop culture references that bring her stories to life. Unfortunately I didn’t find the characters or any of their problems all that compelling. It’s rich teenagers studying, gossiping, drinking, and hooking up, with some minor drama amongst the teachers. She tackles difficult issues like eating disorders and suicide, but with a light hand. Readers closer in age to these characters might find it more interesting and relatable. Get your copy at Bookshop.

Woman Down

Colleen Hoover

In Colleen Hoover’s latest novel, a successful novelist who’s recently been canceled after the controversial adaptation of her most popular novel (while this sounds like her, she claims it’s not autofiction) holes up in a cabin in the woods to write her next novel. While staring at a blank page, trying to conjure a love triangle involving a married woman and a cop, her writer’s block suddenly lifts when a sexy policeman shows up at the door of her cabin to inquire about an incident down the road. Very quickly, these two strangers enter into a highly questionable and intimate role play that pushes the boundaries of consent and morality, all in the name of him helping her “do research” for her book. Colleen Hoover is obviously a very strong writer so I was compelled to keep turning the pages to see what happens, but I can’t say I would recommend this book. I honestly found the whole premise to be really odd and unsettling. If it intrigues you, get your copy at Bookshop.

Stone Mountain is a struggling town in the Adirondacks that’s hard to escape – but Tyler Sinclair managed to get out at age eighteen, against the odds. Now a famous rock star, he’s returned home for a benefit concert for an old childhood friend. His return causes a stir among the former friends he left behind. Under the Falls explores old secrets and resentment, exploring whether longstanding bonds and shared history are enough to get them through their challenges. Richard Russo’s writing is very compelling, but I wanted more emotional depth from the novel. It’s a good choice for readers who enjoy small-town dramas and character-driven stories.

Under the Falls will be published on August 11. Come back then for my full review. Get your copy at Bookshop