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.
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women
Kate Moore
Available Now
Early 20th century people can be excused for not predicting the danger of radioactive material. It’s completely unprecedented and there’s no way they could have known it was going to become the kind of menace to public health and safety it did. What’s inexcusable is how the women who worked with radioactive Radium were treated once those health issues started to manifest. Quick tip: if you’re part of any sort of company and you’re willfully ignoring the plight of your workers or customers, you’re the villain of the situation. So when all the women making your magic glowing watches start getting sick, maybe go ahead and spring for the health insurance and at least try to figure out what’s going wrong. $17
The Secret Art of Being a Grown-Up: Tips, Tricks, and Perks No One Thought to Tell You
Bridget Watson Payne
Available Now
Plenty of people have drawn their own conclusions about the newest generation of adults, not all of them positive. Most of them not, in fact. But it’s definitely a sign of something when the “How to Be an Adult” subgenre of self-help books is doing so well. The Secret Art of Being a Grown-Up is another one of those books designed to help you manage your first time buying an apartment, getting a real person job, or if you’ve just graduated some level of higher education. We’re not saying you need it, but if you feel like you could use a nice succinct collection of tips, maybe you’ll find some help in this one. $11
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
China Miéville
Available Now
There might not have been a more important revolution of the 20th century than those that rocked Russia during the First World War. Every conflict anyone’s had with Russia for a century can have its origins traced back to when communism overtook the nation. Everything about the Cold War, political motivations for Operation Barbarossa in World War 2, and our current animosity with the Russian government all would have been drastically different, if they’d happened at all, without the Russian Revolution. In the same way you can’t get a great handle on America if you don’t know our history, you’re absolutely hopeless with Russia if you don’t understand what happened to the country in the Russian Revolution. $17
Men Without Women
Haruki Murakami
Available Now
For a lot of people, one of their bigger fears is ending up alone for at least a prolonged period of time. Maybe not forever, just for awhile. For whatever reason, and for however long, the characters of Haruki Murakami’s collection Men Without Women are alone. The reader gets a unique look into their lives, covering all sorts of subject matter and ideas, but presented in a way that’s supposed to bring them into the story, rather than alienate the protagonists even from the reader. This book promises to be a more empathetic look into the lives of men who are normally propped up only to be laughed at or pitied, and with any luck, it will bring a little camaraderie to people who find themselves in similar situations. $18
Mother Land
Paul Theroux
Available Now
With Mother’s Day freshly in the rear view, what better way to honor the woman who birthed you than by reading a story about a selfish mother who tears her family apart with obvious favoritism? That’s mostly a joke, since we’re not really sure why they’d choose to release such a bleak matriarchal book this close to Mother’s Day. Some guy at the publisher’s house must have had an absolutely terrible relationship with his own mom to set this date. All that said, this is a good book about familial relationships, so if you’re into books that bounce siblings’ distinct personalities off each other, this is a book worth picking up. $19
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Available Now
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s life is already a lot like the premise of this book. He’s already spent so much time trying to explain high-minded concepts and insanely complex science in layman’s terms that it’s a wonder he hasn’t already written this book. Actually, it’s not out of the question that this book could be a transcript of every TV interview he’s ever done, especially those on The Colbert Report. There’s a lot of knowledge to spread in this book and teaching people physics on their commute is a tall order, but if anyone can teach us about astrophysics over our morning coffee, it’s Black Science Man. $13
Into the Water
Paula Hawkins
Available Now
The Girl on the Train made some serious waves when it was released, and while the movie wasn’t particularly well received, the book made it clear author Paula Hawkins knows how to build tension and suspense. Into the Water doesn’t hit the same voyeuristic motif of its predecessor, but it does build a lot of the same atmosphere. Expect the scope to expand, but for the exploration to have the same grounded emotional humanity as Hawkins’ commuter tale. $17
Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon
Jeffrey Kluger
May 16
This is a weird sentence to type, but we kind of take the Apollo missions for granted. Their main purpose now is to serve as another topic for conspiracy theorists to yell about Hollywood and the government faking stuff and that sort of glosses over the pure cockiness of the program. Who in their right mind looks at the moon as a destination and not a big glowing thing in the sky? Apparently the answer to that is NASA in the ’60s, because Apollo 8 was the first mission to see the far side of the moon and is what made a moon landing actually seem plausible. Without Apollo 8, it’s debatable anyone would have been able to take steps in space, regardless of how big they are. $21
Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century
Chuck Klosterman
May 16
The first part of the title brings up a few possibilities for Chuck Klosterman’s newest book. It could be a fight club of only Chuck Klostermen. It could be the Chuck Klosterman porn parody we’ve been waiting for. It could be the newest 90’s Doritos flavor. It could be Chuck Klosterman’s tenth book. All of those are as likely as each other. Whatever the X means, we’re big Klosterman fans and we’ll be picking up a copy for its May 16 release. $18
