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WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THIS MONTH IN ARTS & CULTURE

1. OUR SHORT HISTORY BY LAUREN GRODSTEIN It’s not the fact that she’s got terminal cancer that will make you sob for (and with) this book’s narrator; you’ll more likely shed tears of laughter. Grodstein’s novel is a funny, warm story about an opposite-of-Kellyanne-Conway political consultant who decides to introduce her young son to his father before she gets too sick to manage the introductions herself. Yes, “introduce”: Jake’s father doesn’t know he has a six-year-old, which makes for some heart-wrenchingly-fraught bits of interpersonal interaction told with an assuming wisdom that is less Jodi Picoult and more Mindy Kaling (if she were ever to write such a story). 2. ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS BY ELAN MASTAI If the early months of 2017 have you pondering the merits of time travel, here’s a cautionary tale: Using a time machine, Tom leaves his utopian version of 2016 (with all its sci-fi-style tech innovations, the most covetable of which is a machine that creates your OOTD every morning!) after his heart is broken, journeys back to a pivotal moment and then realizes he has screwed up the course of history when he finds himself in a 2016 more familiar to us, one sans hovercraft and avec disease. Paradise lost, indeed. 3. SOLITUDE: IN PURSUIT OF A SINGULAR LIFE IN A CROWDED WORLD BY MICHAEL HARRIS Everyone knows that “All By Myself” is the seventh most tear-jerking song in history, so it follows that a book about being alone should make you sad, right? Wrong. We think you’ll find this non-fic vol by a Governor General’s Literary Award-winning author a poetic, contemplative journey into the benefits of solo sojourning. The book—which weaves together personal anecdotes and fascinating research— makes a convincing argument for stepping away from the crowd (and your even more crowded phone) and scheduling some soul-resetting me time ASAP. 4. MISS TREADWAY & THE FIELD OF STARS BY MIRANDA EMMERSON Here’s something you don’t often experience while reading a page-turning thriller: stopping to reread paragraphs because they contain truths that are “Aha”-moment levels of profound. Although it purports to be a whodunit—famous actress disappears in Swingin’ Sixties London!—it’s really a meditation on identity, prejudice and the lies we tell ourselves, narrated by a young theatre dresser who sets out to find her missing boss.