New Arrivals: The Best Book Releases (Feb 20)

Monkey Grip is a “dreamy sojourn” into Melbourne, Australia in the “sexy counterculture of the mid-1970s” by the “mother of autofiction,” says Kirkus Reviews. Helen Garner, 2019 winner of the Australia Council’s Lifetime Achievement in Literature, commands near-universal acclaim as a master novelist, a short-story writer, and journalist. This 1977 cult classic follows single mother and writer Nora as she travels Melbourne’s bohemian underbelly, often with Gracie, her young daughter, by her side.

A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by TIME, Oprah Daily, Lit Hub, and more, Jamison’s first memoir excavates the most intimate relationships of her life: the ruins of a marriage, the legacy of her own parents’ complex ties, and her consuming love for her child. Exploring the multi-faceted complexities of being many things at once to many people, Jamison honors the muchness of life and art in what Mary Karr (author of Lit) calls “a blazing, unputdownable memoir” of a rebuilt life.

From the New York Times bestselling author ofThe Power of Habit comes a fascinating study of how conversations work—and how you, too, can be a supercommunicator. Moving from a CIA officer recruiting a foreign agent to a surgeon struggling to convey less risky treatment options to a patient, Duhigg blends research and storytelling to identify the hidden depths of how we converse. Readers will walk away informed and inspired, armed with tips and skills to improve even small talk.

Oprah Daily calls Ours “a lyrical and surreal saga” perfect for fans of The Underground Railroad, The Water Dancer, and Let Us Descend. Williams’ sweeping novel introduces us to enigmatic Saint, a conjuror who, in the 1830s, annihilates plantations in Arkansas, rescuing people who are enslaved. She creates a haven called Ours, a magically concealed town north of St. Louis. Over four decades, the community unfolds and, as changes take root, begins to crack at the seams.

For over the past 150 years, the world has become increasingly urban. But a different way of life was dominant for well over 6,000 years— the experience of peasants. In this new history, social historian Patrick Joyce shares the story of this disappearing world and its people. Both a global history and commemoration of European peasant rites, traditions, and beliefs, this landmark book will have readers reconsidering the historical transformations of our time, the climate crisis, and more.

“Take a well-fed nine-year-old,” author Nguon writes. “Fold in 2 revolutions, 2 civil wars, and 1 wholesale extermination.” Slow Noodles recounts Nguon’s experience as a Cambodian refugee, losing her home, family, and country, and finding comfort in memories of her mother’s kitchen. This lyrical, urgent memoir follows Nguon during her two decades in exile and includes more than twenty family recipes that serve as an act of resistance, a reclamation, and a testament to history and healing.

Joan Acocella (1945-2024) was a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1995 onwards. Twenty-four essays spanning the final decade and a half of her career are collected here, accompanied by images. Her inspired writing covers “life and art,” which she called her preoccupations. From J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf to Richard Pryor to the Book of Job, this collection is invigorating, revelatory, and the work of “one of our finest cultural critics,” says Edward Hirsch.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window comes End of Story, perfect for fans of Knives Out. A reclusive mystery novelist named Sebastian Trapp’s life is at its end, or so he tells his friend Nicky. When Nicky joins Trapp at his family mansion in San Francisco, Nicky thinks she’ll just be helping write his life story. But they’re joined by a wayward nephew, a daughter, and a beautiful second wife, and family ties get tangled as Nicky tries to weave Trapp’s together.

Jane lives a safe, suburban life with an administrative job at a local college. Her life is very, very normal, if she forgets about her absent mother, her parents’ secrets, and a violent act that changed her whole life. When her twin sister, Lila, claims to know where their mother is and why she disappeared, the two try to reconnect. But the search is not easy, and as the two find themselves pulled into a treacherous web of events, they must fight to escape.

Former chief book critic at the New York Times and Pulitzer Prize-winner Kakutani has crafted an urgent, “dazzling and brilliant” book that “provides a sweeping look at the historical and social and technological forces” that have rapidly changed our world, says Walter Isaacson. In a book that moves from the Middle Ages, the Gilded Age, and the 2008 financial crisis, Kakutani’s book is “profoundly inspiring” and a “prophetic” read, according to artist and author Ai Weiwei.