2022 Reading List: March and April
I’m so excited for these spring releases, with a few from favorite authors and others that are completely new to me.
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March
The RUmor Game by Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra
Publishing Date: March 1
At a DC private school, Bryn used to have it all―the perfect boyfriend, a bright future in politics, and even popularity until one mistake sparked a scandal that burned it all to the ground. Now it's the start of a new school year and the spotlight has shifted: It’s geeky Georgie, newly hot after a summer makeover, whose name is on everyone's lips. When a rumor ignites, Georgie rockets up the school's social hierarchy, pitting her and cheerleader Cora against each other. It grants her Foxham stardom . . . but it also makes her a target. As the rumors grow and morph, blazing like wildfire through the school’s social media, all three girls’ lives begin to unravel. But one person close to the drama has the power to stop the gossip in its tracks. The question is―do they even want to?
Smile and look Pretty by Amanda Pellegrino
Publishing Date: March 8
Cate, Lauren, Olivia and Max are overworked and underpaid assistants to powerful people in the entertainment industries, and know they have to pay their dues and abide the demeaning tasks and verbal abuse from their bosses in order to climb the ladders to their dream jobs. As their toxic office environments reach a breaking point, the women secretly start an anonymous blog detailing their experiences, which inspires hundreds of others coming forward with stories. Confronted with newfound viral fame and the possibility of their identities being revealed, the assistants have to contend with the life-changing consequences of speaking out.
The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Publishing Date: March 8
A rich person thriller from one of my favorite author duos, a wealthy couple outside of DC is rocked when Marissa, the wife, is unfaithful. In their efforts to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son, they start seeing Avery Chambers a therapist who lost her professional license due to her unorthodox methods, but is willing to help people who are desperate. When they start seeing her, bigger secrets come to the surface, and divorce is no longer the biggest danger.
DRess code by Veronique Hyland
Publishing Date: March 15
I have loved Veronique Hyland’s writing for years and am looking forward to this series of essays that take aim at the institutions within the fashion industry while reminding us of the importance of dress and what it means for self-presentation. I’m excited for essays about why has the “French girl” persisted as our most undying archetype, what “dressing for yourself” really means, how should a female politician dress and others.
Four AUnties and a wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Publishing Date: March 29
I talked about the first book in this series endlessly and ranked it as one of my favorite books last year. In the sequel, Meddy Chan is marrying her college sweetheart, Nathan. She finds a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like the one she runs with her aunts and mother to help plan the wedding and then realizes that they are actually a family withe deep criminal ties and her wedding is a front for nefarious business. What will her family do to save her big day?
Home or Away by Kathleen West
Publishing Date: March 29
Once Leigh and Susy were close friends and teammates bound for Olympic hockey gold, but when Leigh’s sure-fire plan to make the final roster backfired, she left everything behind to start over, including the one person who knew her secret. Two decades later, Leigh gets a career opportunity back in Minnesota, which puts her in Susy’s orbit. Despite the coldness between them, Susy can’t help but hope that Leigh might lace up her skates and join her in the coaches’ box, but Leigh is hiding her history with her former coach Jeff Carlson. When he hints of new favors in exchange for her son’s ice time, Leigh is caught in the ultimate bind: come clean about what happened when she was an Olympic hopeful and risk her marriage or play Jeff’s game.
February
Sense and Second-Degree Murder by Tirzah Price
Publishing Date: April 5
Did you know that there is a Jane Austen Murder Mystery series? This second book is based on Sense & Sensibility. When eighteen-year-old aspiring scientist Elinor Dashwood discovers her beloved father slumped over the desk of his office study, she knows his death means bad things for the Dashwood women. To make matters worse, an outdated will entails his estate—including Norland & Company, the private investigation firm where her younger sister Marianne worked as her father’s partner and protégé—to their half-brother and his haughty wife, who waste no time in forcing the Dashwoods out of their home and into a cramped apartment on London’s Barton Street. But before they go, the Dashwood sisters make a startling discovery: a suspicious substance in their father’s teacup—one that can only be described as poison. And poison, as Marianne’s father taught her, always points to murder.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Publishing Date: April 5
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is struggling to have her talents recognized in early 1960s on an all-male team at Hastings Research Institute. Enter Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with her mind. A few years later Elizabeth finds herself a single mother, and also the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual chemistry-minded approach to cooking gains followers but also enemies as she dares women to change the status quo.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Publishing Date: April 5
From the incredible author of Station Eleven, a book about time travel and metaphysics that weaves together different lives from the past, present and future to tell a magical story that ranges from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later. It sounds a little bit insane, but if there was anyone I trust to make it work and make it beautiful, it’s Emily St. John Mandel.
The Lifeguards by amanda Eyre Ward
Publishing Date: April 5
In a wealthy Austin neighborhood, three moms have raised their boys together for 15 years, trying to shelter them from the outside world. One summer, the boys are all lifeguards together when a single night changes everything for them and their mothers. Told from multiple perspectives, the truth and secrets about that night emerge, complicating friendships, neighborhoods and more.
End of the World House by AdRienne Celt
Publishing Date: April 19
Bertie and Kate have been best friends since high school, but when Kate decides to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Bertie’s attempts to make Kate stay fail. She suggests a trip to Paris to distract the duo from their upcoming separation, coming during a ceasefire in a series of escalating world conflicts. One night in Paris, they meet a strange man in a bar who offers them a private tour of the Louvre, where they get stuck in a day that keeps repeating itself. When they are separated, Bertie is faced with a mystery that forces her to figure out how much control she has over her future—and her past—and how to survive an apocalypse when the world keeps refusing to end.
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