New Releases: April Edition

Did one of the book covers on our homepage catch your eye? They are all new titles being released in April 2021, and all are well-reviewed and anticipated. You can either watch the video below read the description of each, then click the linked title to request a copy or get your name on the wait list. And don't forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

Featured Fiction Titles for April

In the Company of Killers by Bryan Christy
Tom Klay is an investigative wildlife reporter, but he's not just a journalist. His reporting is cover for an even more dangerous job: CIA agent. Klay's press credentials make him a perfect spy--able to travel, engage politicians and warlords, and record what he sees. But while in Kenya, Klay is attacked and his friend is murdered. The CIA offers Klay a devil's bargain to capture the man who killed his friend by infiltrating the offices of the woman he once loved, Hungry Khoza. But Klay discovers he and Hungry are part of a larger, more lethal game--one that involves a global superpower. The deeper he digs, the more he realizes that everything he thought he knew about his work may have been a lie. 

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
In a London pub, two people meet. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools, both are now artists―he a photographer, she a dancer―and both are trying to make their mark in the world. Tentatively, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence, and over a year their relationship is tested by forces beyond their control. Narrated with deep intimacy, Open Water is an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity that asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body; to be vulnerable when you are respected for strength; to find safety in love, only to lose it. 

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

When Meddelin Chan accidentally kills her blind date, her mother calls her aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a body is more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cooler to the billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working on at a resort in California. It's the biggest job yet for the family wedding business and nothing, not even a corpse, will get in the way of her auntie's buttercream flowers. But things become torturous when Meddy's great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes an appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?

Featured Nonfiction Titles for April

Philip Roth: The Biography by Blake Bailey

Appointed by Roth and granted complete access, Bailey spent years pouring over Roth’s personal archive, interviewing friends and lovers, and engaging Roth in candid conversations. The result is a portrait of an American master and his literary scene. Bailey shows how Roth emerged from a lower-middle-class Jewish milieu to reach literary fame, how his career was nearly derailed, and how he championed dissident novelists behind the Iron Curtain. Bailey examines Roth’s friendships and reveals the truths of his love life, culminating in his relationship with actress Claire Bloom. Tracing Roth’s path to the masterpieces of the American Trilogy, Bailey explores his engagement with postwar America.

I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust: A Memoir of Autism and Hope by Valerie Gilpeer and Emily Grodin

“I have been buried under years of dust and now I have so much to say.” These were the first words 25-year-old Emily Grodin ever wrote. Born with nonverbal autism, her only means of communicating had been one-word responses or gestures. Her parents, Valerie and Tom, sought every therapy possible and when this miraculous breakthrough occurred, Emily was able to give insight into her life. She could express what her younger years had been like and reveal the intelligence within her. Told by Valerie with stories and poetry from Emily, this book highlights moments of Emily’s childhood that led to her awakening—and how her ability rapidly accelerated after she wrote that first sentence. 

The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with Recipes) by Kate Lebo

A is for aronia, berry member of the apple family. D is for durian, endowed with a dramatic rind and a shifting odor. Q is for quince, which, when fresh, gives off the scent of “roses and citrus and rich women’s perfume."  These and other difficult fruits serve as the central ingredients of twenty-six lyrical essays (with recipes). What makes a fruit difficult? Its cultivation, harvest, preparation, the brevity of its ripeness, its tendency toward rot, the way it might overrun your garden. Here, these fruits will take you on unexpected turns and give sideways insights into relationships, self-care, land stewardship, medical and botanical history, and so much more.