Paperback picks
Gift-giving season is over — time to treat yourself! January is the perfect time to spend those bookstore gift certificates all your loved ones lavished on you over the holidays, and every savvy book buyer knows that your book budget goes a lot further when you buy paperbacks. This month brings a number of splashy new-in-paperback releases, including two romance novels, a memoir and a thriller.
“Lunar New Year Love Story” by Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (First Second, $17.99). Wait, did we just suggest that the holidays were over? Not so fast — Lunar New Year lands on Feb. 10 this year, and it’s hard to think of a better way to celebrate the Year of the Dragon than with this graphic novel written by the cartoonist behind the acclaimed “American Born Chinese.” It’s a romantic comedy (suitable for teens) about a Vietnamese American woman who believes she’s cursed to live alone until she meets an adorable lion dancer at a Lunar New Year celebration.
“Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman” by Alan Rickman (Holt Paperbacks, $25). Few movie debuts have resonated more deeply with audiences than a young stage actor named Alan Rickman’s turn as the villainous Hans Gruber in “Die Hard.” From then on, we couldn’t get enough of Rickman’s austere voice, his wry humor and his puckish tendency to gravitate toward surprising roles, from “Galaxy Quest” to “Sense and Sensibility.” This collection of diary entries charts the course of Rickman’s life from 1993 to his death in 2016, featuring a foreword by fellow actor Emma Thompson.
“Your Driver Is Waiting” by Priya Guns (Vintage, $17). “Taxi Driver” swerves into the gig economy in this brash and buzzy novel about a dirt-poor ride-hail driver who develops an unhealthy fascination with a wealthy customer. Guns’ debut novel is a vicious satire of 2020s America that is sometimes too ambitious for its own good, but always crackling with enthusiasm and inventiveness.
“How Far the Light Reaches” by Sabrina Imbler (Back Bay Books, $19.99). Subtitled “A Life in Ten Sea Creatures,” Imbler’s book blends marine biology with memoir by charting their life as a “queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field” in the form of 10 essays about deep-sea creatures. From wild goldfish to crabs that will never once see the sun to “gelatinous chains” that bear little resemblance to any other life on Earth, Imbler explores how our vast differences can help bring us together.
“The Writing Retreat” by Julia Bartz (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, $17). A handful of aspiring authors are summoned to the lavish home of a wildly successful (and troublingly eccentric) novelist in this zippy literary thriller. Anyone who has ever suffered through an awkward writing group session will likely find some catharsis in this story about strangers who are forced to fight (maybe to the death) over a seven-figure book deal.
“Children of the State” by Jeff Hobbs (Scribner, $19.99). A journalist digs deep into the juvenile legal system, examining how children are left behind by overwhelmed courts and juvenile detention facilities. By the time many of these children are released into the real world, Hobbs argues, they are woefully unprepared for life outside.
“The Davenports” by Krystal Marquis (Dial Books, $12.99). It’s Chicago in 1910, and one of the city’s wealthiest Black families seems to have it all — fancy parties, mansions and a full social calendar. But the two Davenport daughters, Olivia and Helen, are both falling in love with exactly the wrong men at exactly the wrong time and their brother, John, is caught in a love triangle of his own. Based loosely on a real-life Chicago family, this historical romance is sure to appeal to “Bridgerton” fans with its blend of high society and tawdry gossip.
Paul Constant:
[email protected]; on Twitter: @paulconstant. Paul Constant is a Seattle-based writer and the co-founder of The Seattle Review of Books. His Neighborhood Reads series appears monthly in The Seattle Times.
