Spring Reads
March 9, 2022
Warmer weather is around the corner, and so are some of the year’s buzziest fiction releases! Use your library account to add these must-reads to your holds list via Overdrive or by asking a librarian!
Click on any of the titles below for a summary of the book and a direct link to the library catalog!
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
When Katy’s mother dies right before their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime, Katy is left reeling. She opts to take the trip alone to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer before she met Katy’s father. And then, remarkably, Katy’s mother appears in Italy—alive and well, and inexplicably, thirty years old. Fans of Serle’s breakout novel In Five Years will welcome another big-hearted love story with a fantastical twist. Find it here!
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
The latest novel from award-winning author Otsuka is both a poignant story of family and loss and a sharp social commentary. When a crack appears at the bottom of a community pool and forces it to close, Alice, who is suffering from dementia, must navigate life without the routine of her daily laps and the fellowship of the other swimmers. Written in the second person, addressing the estranged daughter of Alice, who survived Japanese internment as a child, Otsuka paints a devastating portrait of how both trauma and love can reverberate through generations. Find it here!
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
Bestselling author Fowler’s first novel in nine years provides a fictionalized and timely tale of a family torn apart by fanaticism. Fowler delves into the lives of various members of John Wilkes Booth’s family, asking how a young man from a household of free-thinking, anti-slavery Shakespearean actors turned into a radical and presidential assassin. Find it here!
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Already a viral sensation, this fantasy novel follows young magicians competing for a place in The Alexandrian Society, a secret enclave of magical academicians. Fans of The Umbrella Society and The Secret History will devour this first novel in a planned trilogy. Find it here!
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
In 2020, Stuart took the literary world by storm with his Booker-prize winning debut novel, Shuggie Bain. His anticipated sophomore novel, about two star-crossed young men coming of age in a Glasgow housing estate, has already racked up multiple starred reviews, with Publisher’s Weekly calling it a “sucker-punch to the heart.” Find it here!
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
In this debut novel set in the early 1960s, a talented chemist loses her job at a research lab after a fling leaves her unexpectedly pregnant. Now a single mother, Elizabeth Lott finds herself the star of a television cooking show that’s taking American housewives by storm—but will she use her new cult following to challenge the gender status quo? Find it here!
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
Smith, the author of several romances for teens, makes her debut foray into adult fiction with a story about family, grief, and finding love in unexpected places. When indie musician Greta James’s mother dies unexpectedly, she decides to accompany her estranged father on the Alaskan cruise her parents were supposed to take for their anniversary—a trip that will prove to be life-changing for them both. Find it here!
The Match by Harlan Coben
Coben is the thriller powerhouse behind the popular Netflix adaptations The Stranger, The Woods, and Safe. His new novel is a follow-up to The Boy from the Woods, continuing the story of Wilde, the titular character who was found alone in the woods with no memory of how he got there. Now a man, Wilde sets out to find answers about his past, and the family who abandoned him. Find it here!