Start the year off with some noteworthy reads
Resolved to read more books in 2020? Plenty of options await you. From freshly collected Harlem Renaissance-era stories by Zora Neale Hurston (“Hitting a Straight Lick With a Crooked Stick,” due out Jan. 14) to a Churchillian saga by the ever-probing Erik Larson (“The Splendid and the Vile,” due out Feb. 25) to a new novel by Louise Erdrich drawing on her grandfather’s extraordinary life (“The Night Watchman,” due out March 3), a flurry of noteworthy titles arrive this winter. Here are 10 more to add to your list.
Fiction
“American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins (Jan. 21, Flatiron, 400 pages, $27.99)
In this pulse-pounding novel, Lydia, an Acapulcobased bookstore owner, befriends one of her patrons, Javier, not realizing he’s the jefe of a drug cartel. When her journalist husband publishes an explosive tell-all about Javier, all hell breaks loose, forcing Lydia and her son to flee for their lives. Early praise for “American Dirt” has been nothing short of rhapsodic, and we can’t wait to dig in.
“Everywhere You Don’t Belong” by Gabriel Bump (Feb. 4, Algonquin, 272 pages, $25.95)
Boyhood and racial politics collide on Chicago’s South Side as young Claude McKay Love, reared by his principled grandma, comes of age against a backdrop of violence. Is there nowhere in America a young black man can be safe? Amid all the heartbreak, Bump injects sly humor. The South Shore native began working on this, his debut novel, while studying at the School of the Art Institute.
“Temporary” by Hilary Leichter (March 3, Coffee House, 208 pages, $16.95)
In this surreal, latecapitalist fable of the working life, a young woman takes on 23 temp jobs — from mopping the deck of a pirate ship to shining shoes — all while dealing with her 18 boyfriends. The premise strikes us as a more whimsical Halle Butler novel, and the tone has been likened to Italo Calvino, yet this debut novel sounds refreshingly original.
“Whiteout Conditions” by Tariq Shah (March 17, Two Dollar Radio, 114 pages, $14.99)
This Midwestern noir takes place during a brutal Chicago winter and follows two friends, Ant and Vince, returning to the city after the sudden death of their friend Ray. The first novel by poet, writer and Illinois native Shah, “Whiteout Conditions” explores toxic masculinity, revenge, tragedy and other forces that obscure a life’s path.
“Bubblegum” by Adam Levin (April 14, Doubleday, 784 pages, $28.95)
Set in 1988 and 2013, the second novel by former
Chicagoan Adam Levin (“The Instructions”) takes place in a world in which the internet doesn’t exist. Instead, everyone is obsessed with their robotic pet, or “Curio.” Belt Magnet, a maladjusted 38-yearold who lives at home with his widowed father, was one of the first to own a Curio and now struggles to interact with the outside world. “Bubblegum” finds him forced to confront it.
Nonfiction
“My Autobiography of Carson McCullers” by Jenn Shapland (Feb. 4, Tin House, $22.95)
Having lit upon love letters between Carson McCullers and Swiss writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Jenn Shapland was inspired to write something equally unabashed. The odd syntax of the title is intentional: Shapland interweaves her own story with that of McCullers, examining queer history, loneliness, storytelling and selfhood in this intriguing, genre-blending debut.
“The Adventurer’s Son” by Roman Dial (Feb. 18, Morrow, 368 pages, $28.99)
When his son, Cody Dial, disappeared on a solo trek into the Costa Rican rainforest, Roman Dial — a professor of mathematics and biology at Alaska Pacific University and lifelong pursuer of epic adventurers (rafting, ice-climbing, mountaineering) — embarked on a desperate search for answers. He also questioned his own role in Cody’s fate, having traveled with his son to some of Earth’s most rugged places. This true-life family saga is sure to be both riveting and devastating.
“Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country” by Sierra Crane Murdoch (Feb. 25, Random House, 400 pages, $28)
In this ambitious work of investigative journalism, described as ”part true crime, part social criticism,” Sierra Crane Murdoch tells the story of a murder on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota and the Arikara woman, Lissa Yellow Bird, determined to solve it. As Lissa pursues answers, she reckons with her own choices and confronts legacies of greed, violence and exploitation on Native lands.
“Recollections of My Nonexistence” by Rebecca Solnit (March 10, Viking, 256 pages, $26)
Solnit, who’s known for “Men Explain Things to Me,” “Whose Story Is This?” and many more books, recalls coming of age as a writer and feminist thinker in 1980s San Francisco: inhabiting a tiny apartment, listening to punk rock and slowly awakening to the forces that try to silence women. “Recollections” is about finding a voice and using it thoughtfully and unreservedly.
“Wow, No Thank You” by Samantha Irby (March 31, Vintage, 336 pages, $15.95)
Irby’s star continues to rise — and deservedly so. The writer and humorist penned the famous pool party episode of “Shrill,” recently profiled Lizzo for Time magazine and blesses inboxes with her hilarious newsletter, “Who’s on Judge Mathis today?” Her new essay collection dishes on bad dates, weird Hollywood experiences and life as a “cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person.”