Vick’s picks for your springtime reading lists
The book publishing industry is finally getting back to a somewhat normal rhythm after our year of pandemic adversity. Many new book releases will be hitting the shelves between now and the end of June. Here are some titles to watch out for:
“Eternal” by Lisa Scottoline (March 23, Putnam, 480 pages, $28).
Lisa Scottoline has built a significant readership with a long list of best-selling mysteries. Her novel “Eternal” is something quite different for her, a historical novel set in Italy during what was known as the “ventennio,” the 20-year period in which the dictator Benito Mussolini ruled Italy as a fascist state. This is the story of a love triangle set against the tense backdrop of the Holocaust.
“Rock Me On the Water: 1974-the Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics” by Ronald Brownstein (March 23, Harper, 438 pages, $29.99)
In this book the author makes the case that the year 1974 marked the creative high point for the city of Los Angeles. He examines the confluence of forces that produced films like “Chinatown” and Godfather II,” TV shows like “All in the Family,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and “M*A*S*H*,” as well as classic recordings by The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, and Linda Ronstadt. And in politics that year, there was the seismic shift from conservative Ronald Reagan to the progressive Jerry Brown.
“The Lost Village” by Camilla Sten (March 23, Minotaur, 340 pages, $26.99)
This haunting novel tells the story of a Swedish village where the population of 900 people vanished overnight, never to be seen again. Only one baby escaped that fate. Now a documentary film crew has some to this forsaken, decaying place to shoot some footage about the mysterious events that occurred 50 years ago. These young people think they are alone; they are not. The story slowly morphs into a wall crawling horror.
“A Million Reasons Why” by Jessica Strawser (March 23, St. Martin’s Press, 357 pages, $27.99)
The results of a mail-in DNA test reveal that two women are related to one another. They are half sisters. One of them is in desperate need of an organ transplant because her kidneys are failing. Her halfsister could be a potential donor match for her. Now these women have been plunged into a drama that will jumble their lives.
“Girlhood” by Melissa Febos (March 30, Bloomsbury, 321 pages, $27).
In these sizzling essays, Melissa Febos scrutinizes narratives that women are told and why she questioned them. She found them inadequate, or simply wrong. They did not seem to place a value upon freedom, happiness or personal safety. These essays are a corrective effort to reframe skewed perceptions.
“The Devil May Dance” by Jake Tapper (May 11, Litte, Brown, 336 pages, $28)
CNN’s Washington correspondent takes a page from the late Jim Lehrer who once had a side career as a novelist. Tapper writes thrillers. His latest, “The Devil May Dance,” is set in Washington and Hollywood during the 1960s. Bobby Kennedy sends Charlie and Margaret Marder, the protagonists of Tapper’s previous book, “The Hellfire Club,” to Los Angeles to launch an investigation into Frank Sinatra’s purported links to organized crime.