April showers bring new books that will make staying indoors a bit more appealing. This month’s most anticipated releases include The Wedding Date author Jasmine Guillory’s first foray into sapphic romance, the latest self-help book from celebrity psychic and healer Laura Day, and Kate Folk’s hilarious and touching portrait of a woman who dreams of marrying an airplane. (Yes, you read that right.)
The other must-reads of April include New Yorker editor and writer Michael Luo’s deeply reported and personal look at the history of Chinese exclusion in the U.S. and Morgan Jerkins’ follow-up to her 2021 fiction debut, Caul Baby. Bestselling French author Anne Berest and her sister Claire pay tribute to their great-grandmother, French art critic Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, with their newly translated novel. And Joan Didion’s posthumous release, Notes to John, marks the first publication of new material from the iconic author since her 2021 essay collection, Let Me Tell You What I Mean.
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Below, the 15 books you should read in April.
I See You’ve Called in Dead, John Kenney (April 1)
John Kenney’s third novel I See You’ve Called in Dead begins with Bud Stanley, a 40-something obituary writer, killing himself off. Well, figuratively. After a particularly disastrous blind date, he drunkenly posts his obit to the website where he works. His brush with (fake) death sets him on a quest to attend the funerals of complete strangers in hopes of discovering what makes life truly worth living.
Buy Now: I See You’ve Called in Dead on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Boat Baby, Vicky Nguyen (April 1)
NBC News anchor and correspondent Vicky Nguyen’s debut is a love letter to her refugee parents. Boat Baby follows Nguyen’s family’s daring escape from communist Vietnam to the U.S. in 1979 when she was just eight months old. She traces their journey across the South China Sea, where they were attacked by pirates, to the Malaysian refugee camp where they spent months waiting to resettle in California. Once in the U.S., Nguyen details how finding her place in an unfamiliar country as the daughter of immigrant parents inspired her to become a journalist.
Buy Now: Boat Baby on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Sky Daddy, Kate Folk (April 8)
Kate Folk’s first novel, Sky Daddy, is an unconventional rom-com about a woman who is obsessed with airplanes. Linda, a content moderator for an online video platform, spends the last Friday of every month flying from her windowless garage apartment in San Francisco to a regional airport in hopes of finding the plane of her dreams. Her goal is to “marry” a commercial airliner and consummate their relationship by crashing down together; a desire so taboo she keeps it to herself. But as she gets closer to finding her soulmate, she questions whether it’s worth trading her normal life for a love no one will understand.
Buy Now: Sky Daddy on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Exit Wounds, Peter Godwin (April 8)
With his latest memoir, former war correspondent Peter Godwin puts the focus on the three most important women in his life. As his 90-year-old South African mother lay dying in England, he recounts their life-long antagonistic relationship as well as the death of his older sister during the Rhodesian Bush War, a civil conflict in what is now Zimbabwe, and his recent divorce from media executive Joanna Coles.
Buy Now: Exit Wounds on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Flirting Lessons, Jasmine Guillory (April 8)
Jasmine Guillory’s latest romance novel Flirting Lessons begins with mild mannered event planner Avery Jensen realizing she needs some help in the art of seduction. Luckily, she finds herself a willing teacher in Taylor Cameron, a known heartbreaker who is looking for a wholesome distraction after her best friend bets her she can’t stay celibate for the summer. When Avery starts catching real feelings, she must decide whether to put Taylor’s lessons to the test in this steamy will-they-won’t-they love story.
Buy Now: Flirting Lessons on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Audition, Katie Kitamura (April 8)
Katie Kitamura’s fifth novel, Audition, begins with a tense Manhattan lunch date between an accomplished middle-aged theater actor and a mysterious younger man. Over the course of 197 disquieting pages, Kitamura unravels a provocative narrative that questions the relationship between truth and performance.
Buy Now: Audition on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Hellions, Julia Elliott (April 15)
Hellions, Julia Elliott’s latest short story collection, is full of feral fairytales with a gothic twist. These 11 stories set throughout the Southern U.S. feature mystical nuns housed at a plague-stricken medieval convent, a tough-talking 12-year-old with a pet alligator, a lascivious middle-aged professor who transforms into a centaur at night, and a group of mothers whose children have picked up supernatural powers from a pair of mysterious forest-dwelling orphans. Blurring the line between reality and fantasy, Hellions provides an unsettling look at what it means to be alienated in our technology-driven world.
Buy Now: Hellions on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Fish Tales, Nettie Jones (April 15)
Nettie Jones’ long-out-of-print 1983 debut, Fish Tales, feels just as edgy as it did when it was first released more than 40 years ago. The newly reissued cult classic follows confident, but troubled party girl Lewis Jones as she drinks, experiments with drugs, and fornicates her way through 1970s New York and Detroit. (Jones has said the slim novel, edited by Toni Morrison, was loosely inspired by her own life.) Lewis’ pursuit of freedom hits a speed bump when she falls in love with Brook, a handsome but cruel quadriplegic whose mission is to tame her at any cost.
Buy Now: Fish Tales on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Gabriële, Anne Berest & Claire Berest (April 22)
Sisters Anne and Claire Berest’s 2017 novel, newly translated from the original French by Tina Kover, offers a mostly true account of the life of their late great-grandmother Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, an accomplished French musician-turned-art critic, and the love affair that started an art revolution. Set at the height of the Belle Époque, Gabriële centers around the authors’ titular relative and her relationships with her husband, Spanish painter Francis Picabia, and her lover, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. The book acts as a loving tribute to an important figure of the avant garde art movement who was nearly forgotten to history.
Buy Now: Gabriële on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Notes to John, Joan Didion (April 22)
Notes to John offers an intimate look into the psyche of the late Joan Didion, who died in 2021 at the age of 87. The posthumous release consists of the diaries Didion kept when she first began seeing a psychiatrist in November 1999. Her post-therapy session notes span several months of analysis and are addressed to her late husband, John Gregory Dunne, who passed away in 2003. Much like her other work, the entries address delicate personal issues including alcoholism, depression, anxiety, guilt, and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Quintana, whose death and the grief that followed was the focus of her 2011 memoir, Blue Nights.
Buy Now: Notes to John on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
The Pretender, Jo Harkin (April 22)
For fans of Hilary Mantel: a bawdy work of medieval historical fiction that tells the little-known story of Lambert Simnel, a peasant boy who, at 10 years old, discovers he is the secret heir to Richard III’s throne. Jo Harkin’s second novel, The Pretender, looks at how the young man believed to be the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence navigates his sudden rise in the royal ranks during the early ascent of the Tudors.
Buy Now: The Pretender on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Zeal, Morgan Jerkins (April 22)
Bestselling author Morgan Jerkins’ second novel, Zeal, is a multi-generational romance that spans more than 150 years of Black history. Inspired by a real love letter written during the Civil War, the historical saga follows a recently discharged Union Army soldier named Harrison as he embarks on a journey to find Tirzah, the love of his life. To understand the depth of their bond, the book flashes forward to Harlem in 2019 where a 30-something doctor named Oliver gives his fiancée a letter Tirzah wrote to Harrison in 1857, forever changing how the modern-day couple sees their own love story.
Buy Now: Zeal on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
On Muscle, Bonnie Tsui (April 22)
After exploring the reasons why we swim in her 2021 memoir, author and journalist Bonnie Tsui is back with a thought-provoking deep dive into the muscular system. Blending science, personal essay, and immersive reporting, Tsui attempts to understand the meaning of true endurance by taking a 50-mile run through Nevada that follows the escape route from a Native boarding school. She travels to Oslo to see how cutting-edge tools are helping humans bounce back from injury and joins a Double Dutch club in Washington, D.C. to learn more about the mind-body connection. In between, she examines how her “impressively fit” Chinese immigrant father’s intense exercise routine influenced how she approaches her own health and wellness.
Buy Now: On Muscle on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
The Prism, Laura Day (April 29)
For the last decade, bestselling author and psychic Laura Day has been workshopping a seven-step program designed to help people transcend their past trauma in order to find inner peace. The result is The Prism, a practical guide to life that builds off the titular concept of her 1996 self-help book Practical Intuition. Using scientific research, ancient philosophy, and her own experience growing up with a mother who suffered from mental illness, Day offers tools that can help readers reach their personal and professional goals.
Buy Now: The Prism on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Strangers in the Land, Michael Luo (April 29)
With his debut, Strangers in the Land, journalist Michael Luo traces the history of Chinese exclusion in America. Across nearly 600 pages, he explores how the welcomed arrival of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. in the mid-19th century quickly turned violent, resulting in the passing of a series of exclusionary laws in 1889. He follows the trajectory of the Chinese American community up until the present day, putting the focus on those individuals who were the earliest victims of anti-Asian hate.
Buy Now: Strangers in the Land on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble