’Tis the season of renewal. Start with your library card.
Then check out these riveting new books and read them while nature awakens.
Charlotte au Chocolat: Memories of a Restaurant Girlhood
We felt like a kid in a candy shop reading Charlotte Silver’s memoir about growing up in her mom’s Harvard Square restaurant. She shows all the sweetness — baked cakes, candied violets, sparkling conversation — through the eyes of a child. It is a pleasure — and pain once she admits to her inner loneliness.
Why We Broke Up
Yeah, it’s a young-adult novel. So? We’re smitten with Daniel Handler’s lighthearted story (with art by Maira Kalman) that plants you in the middle of a teen breakup. A girl dumps her guy by leaving him a box filled with mundane items collected over the course of their relationship. Ouch.
The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac
Growing up is tough. Just ask debut author Kris D’Agostino, who crafted a smart, funny novel about a disillusioned film school dropout forced to live at home with his knocked-up sister, overachieving older brother, ailing father, and in-debt mother. We wish every coming-of-age story was this mesmerizing.
The Darlings
Cristina Alger yanks you back to fall 2008 when New York City was in financial crisis. She expertly laces several stories together to show how a high-society family, attorneys, and journalists scramble to get to the bottom of scandal — or cover it up. Quick! Somebody buy the movie rights.
Hot Pink
We wondered if Adam Levin could live up to the greatness of his 2010 book, The Instructions. He did. The author parcels ten eccentric and enthralling short stories in his follow-up release. Our fave: “Relating,” a collection of microsnippets about the way we interact.
If allergies keep you from playing outside, there are plenty more new books worth sneezing over.
Photos: Courtesy of Riverhead Books; Courtesy of Little, Brown; Courtesy of Pamela Dorman Books
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