Whether you read on a tablet, Kindle, or still prefer the smell of a freshly cracked paperback, finding your next book is never easy. You could never read all the new novels, biographies, or nonfiction tomes released each week, so we’re here to help. These are a handful of the new or upcoming books we think deserve a space on your eReader or nightstand.
New York 2140
Kim Stanley Robinson
Available Now
Climate change, if left unchecked, will hit New York City fairly hard. Hopefully not enough to turn it into the North American Venice, as imagined by New York 2140, but expect some higher seas. Also, apparently don’t expect the DNA of the city to change much either, as the characters of New York 2140 are market traders, detectives, internet starlets, and homeless. The city is as alive as it ever has been, which means New York things will be happening. In this case, investigating a missing persons case that could accidentally trigger the end of the city. $18
White Tears
Hari Kunzru
Available Now
It feels like it’s about time we put some effort into recognizing black musicians from the 1920s. Whether they were erased by racially motivated revisions or accident, they did more to shape American music culture than anyone who came before or after them. For the first time, America created a style all its own. White Tears explores that idea, putting two white twenty-something New Yorkers in the middle of what could turn out to be a conspiratorial history of plenty of dirty dealing and shady business tactics, all with a backdrop of what modern society thinks of 1920s blues. $15
Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
Adam Alter
Available Now
Something drug dealers figured out a long time ago was, the easiest way to guarantee a return customer was addiction. Drawing that parallel, it’s a little unnerving to know a lot of the same motivation drives modern business practices and product development. It’s one of the many reasons piling up as to why you should lessen or outright quit your social media habits and it’s why Adam Alter wrote this book. He wanted to examine the addictive qualities of modern culture and find out exactly what, if anything, was negatively affecting society. But don’t think it’s all bad. There are ways to reclaim addictive products and reduce damaging effects. Just don’t think it’s going to be easy. $17
Dynamic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s
Jason Turbow
Available Now
Athletes seem to have lost their edge these past few years. Any notable behavior has mostly centered around actual crime, and unregistered handguns and domestic abuse don’t exactly make for fun and storied characters. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic celebrates the larger-than-life athletes of a recently bygone era who changed the national pastime through both the power of their personalities and their undefeatable talents. The 1970s Oakland A’s were a team that’s rare for professional sports of any kind and deserved to be remembered for it. $17
The Nest
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
April 4th
The Nest is about the type of situation we hope we never find ourselves in. Fighting with siblings over an inheritance feels like a horrible way to say goodbye to a parent and it’s part of the reason we’re happy our parents aren’t Standard Oil rich. Money makes people do weird, insulting, occasionally hateful things, so we’ll support almost any way we can stop it from being a problem. But the reality is, some families do face these issues, not least of which is the Plumb family, a family with so much dysfunction packed into it, they probably argue about directions on a NASCAR track. $10
One Year on a Bike: From Amsterdam to Singapore
Martijn Doolaard
Available Now
You should totally judge this book by its cover, since everything you need to know about it is sitting right there. If you like stories about traveling the world for extended periods of time, then you’re probably the intended audience. If you don’t, and you buy this book, you made a bad choice. That’s really all there is to say here, so we’re just going to move on. $39
The Delight of Being Ordinary: A Road Trip with the Pope and the Dalai Lama
Roland Merullo
April 11th
Pop culture has turned the simple road trip into a towering symbol of American independence and adventure and that’s almost certainly responsible for some seriously inflated expectations. We’d just about guarantee every summer thousands of blamelessly ignorant teenagers find themselves in wildly preventable danger, all thanks to what Hollywood says sedans allow you to do. Maybe the only way a road trip could be as good as people think it’s going to be is if it’s led by a tag team of the Pope and the Dalai Lama. Luckily, that’s exactly what this book is about. So spend the gas money on a plane (or train) ticket and read The Delight of Being Ordinary on the ride. $18
The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For
David McCullough
April 18th
David McCullough is easily one of the most respected and widely read historians in recent history. Through it all, he’s been steadfastly patriotic, only instead of taking the memeified “Murica” approach, with its irritating insistence on talking about bacon, guns, and eagles as often as inhumanly possible, McCullough instead opted for a genuine exploration of rich American history through a long career of books and speeches to every imaginable audience. For The American Spirit, McCullough gathered what he considered his most relevant speeches, in an attempt to reestablish the common ground Americans seem to have forgotten they occupy. People have far more in common than they have differences and McCullough is exactly the person to remind us of that. $17
The Illustrated Art of Manliness: The Essential How-To Guide
Brett McKay
May 16th
As you’d expect, the guys over at The Art of Manliness know a thing or two about what’s expected from a man in today’s world. Luckily, they’re the sharing type and have always made it easy to pick their brains. Now, with the upcoming release of their illustrated guide, we have another educational tool for becoming our best selves. There are more than 100 skills every guy should know with clear, easily digestible visuals, so really, if you own a copy, you should never be caught unprepared. This is the easiest being a man has ever been. $17
