READING CORNER
Make space on your shelf for these books this spring.
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh
There’s no conceivable world in which we wouldn’t be excited about a new Ottessa Moshfegh novel. (Her second, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, is still all over IG two years after its publication.) The American author’s eerie latest follows a woman whose life is upended when she discovers a note in the woods suggesting that someone has been murdered and becomes determined to solve the crime.
A Burning by Megha Majumdar
Kolkata-raised writer Megha Majumdar’s debut novel is so compelling you’ll want to read it all at once. But may we suggest that you instead savour the intense story—about three ambitious people whose lives become entangled when one of them is accused of executing a terrorist attack in India—over a weekend when you have time to sit with it?
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
In 2018, Indigenous writer Billy-Ray Belcourt became the youngest person to win the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize for his experimental collection, The Wound Is a World. It makes sense, then, that his debut memoir, A History of My Brief Body, is a genre-defying text that explores love, joy and identity while navigating the trauma that’s been inflicted by the legacy of colonialism.
All I Ask by Eva Crocker
Just when we need another reminder to step away from our phones, in swoops Newfoundland native Eva Crocker. In All I Ask, Stacey is awoken by police pounding on her door who then seize her devices because they’re looking for “illegal digital material.” Shaken, Stacey searches for a way to reclaim her privacy, relying on her tight-knit circle of friends.
Weird but Normal by Mia Mercado
You’ve likely read (and laughed out loud at) prolific writer Mia Mercado’s work online. The Kansas City-based writer brings that trademark wit to her debut collection of essays, which examine the weird yet totally normal things we do as human beings, from having the inexplicable urge to buy a too-expensive candle that claims to smell like the ocean (it doesn’t) to working a job that drives you to do shots on your lunch break.
Pew by Catherine Lacy
With this thought-provoking novel, acclaimed writer Catherine Lacy takes a bold risk: Her titular character is a genderless, racially ambiguous person who doesn’t speak. When they turn up in a small religious town, we watch as they are generously put up in one home after another—until the community slowly becomes unnerved by their presence.