REQUIRED READING

The Bad Weather Friend

Dean Koontz (Thomas & Mercer) When Benny Catspaw loses his job, his fiance and his social standing, it seems as though someone is out to get him. Then, an uncle he’s never known promises things will improve and gives hi ma strange gift: a crate containing a 7-foot-creature calling himself “bad weather friend” who is ready to tackle Benny’s enemies.

Burma Sahib: A Novel

Paul Theroux (Mariner Books) In the 1920s, a young Eton graduate named Eric Blair travels to India to train to oversee the local police in colonial Burma. The assignment tests him and changes him, and he ultimately becomes famed writer George Orwell in this new book from the acclaimed author of “Mosquito Coast” and “The Bad Angel Brothers.”

Fourteen Days: A Novel

The Author’s Guild, Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston (Harper) Set in a Lower East Side tenement building at the start of the Covid-19, this collaborative novel has a fun conceit: Each character in the eccentric cast is written by a different big-name author. Atwood and Preson headline, but Celeste Ng, Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Candace Bushnell, David Byrne, Scott Turow and many others also lend their talents.

Get the Picture

Bianca Bosker (Viking) The bestselling author of “Cork Dork” sets out to better understand the art world and takes an amusing, informative journey that involves rubbing shoulders with billionaire collectors, being sat on by an almost naked performance artist and moonlighting as a museum security guard.

Out of shape worth less loser

Gracie Gold (Crown) Gold was part of the bronzemedal-winning team at the 2014 Socchi Olympics, but instead of returning for an encore in 2018, the American sweetheart was plagued by mental health issues. Here, she candidly shares her struggles with suicidal ideation, eating disorders, family estrangement and surviving sexual assault.

The Women

Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Press) In her latest, the bestselling author of “The Nightingale” and “The Four Winds,” focuses on a young nursing student in the 1960s who leaves her idyllic life in Southern California to go to Vietnam and work in the Army Nurse Corps, where she meets several other brave, heroic women.