If you’re worried about not having any books to read this April, I’m excited to put you at ease. April, is a wonderful month for books with new releases from Leigh Bardugo and Emily Henry as well as a feast of other titles to choose from. We hope your TBR list can handle it!
Piper Chen Sings by Phillipa Soo and Maris Pasquale Doran, illustrated by Qin Leng
I’ve been a fan of Phillipa Soo since I first saw her on broadway in Hamilton (I know, I pinch myself sometimes too) and then in Amelie. She’s incredibly talented and I was unsurprised to learn she turned her creative energy to writing an adorable, personal and beautifully illustrated picture book with her sister-in-law. A perfect choice if you’re looking for a kid-friendly addition to your books to read this April.
Synopsis: An empowering story about a girl who turns her performance jitters into confidence when faced with singing a solo at her school concert. Inspired by the childhood experience of award-winning actress Phillipa Soo who originated the role of Eliza in Hamilton.
Piper Chen loves nothing more than to sing. She sings to the sun, and she sings to the moon. She sings to her stuffed animals and with the birds outside her window. So, when her music teacher asks if Piper would like to sing a solo in her school’s Spring Sing, all she can say is “yes!” But as practice continues, doubt and worry creep in and Piper’s confidence wavers. She feels like butterflies are having a dance party in her belly. At home, Piper finds Nai Nai, her grandmother, at the piano. They’ve always shared a love of music, and Piper knows if anyone can help her through the unsettling feeling in her stomach and to shine her brightest at the Spring Concert, it’s Nai Nai.
First time picture book writers and sisters-in-law, Phillipa Soo and Maris Pasquale Doran along with acclaimed illustrator Qin Leng have created a cheerful intergenerational and stunning story that inspires confidence in the face of nervousness
On Sale: April 2, 2024, via Random House Studio. Order here.
Continental Drifter by Kathy MacLeod
If you read my monthly new books post, you’ll know that I love graphic novels and one always makes its way onto our books to read for the month list. I especially love middle-grade graphic novels because they capture the experience of being a pre-teen so well and often are so imaginative and relatable. Continental Drifter by Kathy Macleod is all of that and more and a must-read for any graphic novel enthusiast.
Synopsis: With a Thai mother and an American father, Kathy lives in two different worlds. She spends most of the year in Bangkok, where she’s secretly counting the days till summer vacation. That’s when her family travels for twenty-four hours straight to finally arrive in a tiny seaside town in Maine.
Kathy loves Maine’s idyllic beauty and all the exotic delicacies she can’t get back home, like clam chowder and blueberry pie. But no matter how hard she tries, she struggles to fit in. She doesn’t look like the other kids in this rural New England town. Kathy just wants to find a place where she truly belongs, but she’s not sure if it’s in America, Thailand . . . or anywhere.
On Sale: April 2, 2024, via First Second. Order here.
Winnie Nash Is Not Your Sunshine by Nicole Melleby
A beautiful book just in time for Pride. Readers will love Winnie and want to give her a big hug, proving again that Nicole Melleby writes real, authentic characters whose struggles and triumphs can resonate with so many readers.
Synopsis: Winnie Nash never used to have so many secrets.
But then she agreed to stay with her grandma for the summer so her mom can take care of her health during her latest pregnancy. Now Winnie plays card games with Grandma’s friends (boring), joins the senior citizen book club (fine, even if no one thinks she’ll read the books), and absolutely does not talk about her mom’s sad days (she never used to be so sad…).
The biggest secret is that her parents asked Winnie not to mention she’s gay to Grandma. And there’s a really cute girl who also hangs out with the senior citizens. What happens if Grandma notices just how much Winnie likes Pippa? The longer Winnie hides the truth, the more she longs to be surrounded by her LGBTQ+ community and the more she feels like the only place she can be herself is at New York City’s Pride celebration. Winnie decides she’ll get to Pride, one way or another. But is this just one more secret she has to keep?
On Sale: April 2, 2024, via Algonquin Young Readers. Order here.
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaughnessy
I read Kate’s novel The Lonely Hearts of Maybelle Lane a few years ago and loved it to bits. Kate became a must-read author and I was delighted to learn that she has a new novel out. This one proves to be as full of heart and larger than life characters as her previous novels.
Synopsis: Fern’s lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid, sustainable community in upstate New York, since she was six. The work is hard, but Fern admires the Ranch’s leader, Dr. Ben.
So when Fern’s mother sneaks them away in the middle of the night and says Dr. Ben is dangerous, Fern doesn’t believe it. She wants desperately to go back, but her mom just keeps driving.
Suddenly thrust into the treacherous, toxic, outside world, Fern thinks only about how to get home again. She has a plan, but it will take time. As that time goes by, though, Fern realizes there are things she will miss from this place–the library, a friend from school, the ocean–and there are things she learned at the Ranch that are just…not true. Now Fern will have to decide. How much is she willing to give up to return to the Ranch? Should she trust Dr. Ben’s vision for her life? Or listen to the growing feeling that she can live by her own rules?
On Sale: April 2, 2024, via Alfred A. Knopf Books For Young Readers. Order here.
Otherworldly by F.T. Lukens
A supernatural romantic adventure novel? If you were looking for a top choice for what to read this April, start here. It’s got everything I think a good novel should have. High-stakes, romance, an exciting premise and the promise that you’ll be fully immersed in the story.
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Ellery is a non-believer in a region where people swear the supernatural is real. Sure, they’ve been stuck in a five-year winter, but there’s got to be a scientific explanation. If goddesses were real, they wouldn’t abandon their charges like this, leaving farmers like Ellery’s family to scrape by.
Knox is a familiar from the Other World, a magical assistant sent to help humans who have made crossroads bargains. But it’s been years since he heard from his queen, and Knox is getting nervous about what he might find once he returns home. When the crossroads demons come to collect Knox, he panics and runs. A chance encounter down an alley finds Ellery coming to Knox’s rescue, successfully fending off his would-be abductors.
Ellery can’t quite believe what they’ve seen. And they definitely don’t believe the nonsense this unnervingly attractive guy spews about his paranormal origins. But Knox needs to make a deal with a human who can tether him to this realm, and Ellery needs to figure out how to stop this winter to help their family. Once their bargain is struck, there’s no backing out, and the growing connection between the two might just change everything.
On Sale: April 2, 2024, via Margaret K. McElderry Books. Order here.
You Are Here: Poetry In The Natural World, edited by Ada Limon
April is National Poetry Month! And while I don’t read as much as I want to, I’m trying to be better about it. This exquisite poetry collection featuring unpublished poems from some of the most sublimely talented poets is a good place to start on my books to read this month list.
Synopsis: For many years, “nature poetry” has evoked images of Romantic poets standing on mountain tops. But our poetic landscape has changed dramatically, and so has our planet. Edited and introduced by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, Ada Limón, this book challenges what we think we know about “nature poetry,” illuminating the myriad ways our landscapes—both literal and literary—are changing.
You Are Here features fifty previously unpublished poems from some of the nation’s most accomplished poets, including Joy Harjo, Diane Seuss, Rigoberto González, Jericho Brown, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Paul Tran, and more. Each poem engages with its author’s local landscape—be it the breathtaking variety of flora in a national park, or a lone tree flowering persistently by a bus stop—offering an intimate model of how we relate to the world around us and a beautifully diverse range of voices from across the United States.
Joyful and provocative, wondrous and urgent, this singular collection of poems offers a lyrical reimagining of what “nature” and “poetry” are today, inviting readers to experience both anew.
On Sale: April 2, 2024, via Milkweed Editions. Order here.
The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell
As someone with anxiety and who took a few psychology classes in college, this made our list of books to read this month because its very interesting to me for various probably understandable reasons. One of those reasons is Amanda Montell’s relatable, funny and easy way of explaining things like cognitive bias and share fun facts about why we think the way we do. Seriously not doing it justice but go read this.
Synopsis: Utilizing the linguistic insights of her “witty and brilliant” (Blyth Roberson, author of America the Beautiful?) first book Wordslut and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet.
“Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: Think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.
In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “Halo effect” cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the “Sunk Cost Fallacy” can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.
On Sale: April 9, 2024, via Atria/One Signal. Order here.
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
One of the most anticipated books on the internet, The Familiar has so much buzz that it made it to the top of my books to read in April list before it came out. But knowing Leigh, it will bring her trademark snarky but vulnerable characters, kickass storylines and atmospheric writing that will engulf you until you’ve turned the last page.
Synopsis: In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to improve the family’s social position.
What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen–and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor.
Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the lines between magic, science, and fraud are never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive–even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.
On Sale: April 9, 2024, via Flatiron Books. Order here.
Funny Story by Emily Henry
I know many of you won’t need much convincing to add this to your books to read list but if you need a perfect Spring read, I can’t think of a better option than Emily Henry’s delightful new rom-com, Funny Story. If your favorite tropes involve opposites attract and fake dating, than you’re in luck with this one. Be prepared to grin as you read this and swoon like you’ve done for Beach Read, Happy Place, and Book Lovers.
Synopsis: Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic–with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads –Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them? But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
On Sale: April 23, 2024, via Berkley Books. Order here.
A Letter To The Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
I’ll admit that I mostly gravitated toward this one at first because of the cover. How could you not look at this book and immediately want it in your hands? And then come to find out its an epistolary romance with a dash of academia and an underwater world? Its a very specific kind of catnip for me and on the top of my books to read this month pile.
Synopsis: A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.
Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.’s home, and she and Henerey vanish.
A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery, piecing together the letters, sketches and field notes left behind–and learn what their siblings’ disappearance might mean for life as they know it.
On Sale: April 23, 2024, via Orbit. Order here.
Saint-Seducing Gold by Brittany N. Williams
This exciting sequel is definitely a book to read this April. And since its out toward the end of the month, you still have time to catch up on the first book, That Self-Same Metal. You don’t want to miss out on this original series and be sure to add both titles to your books to read pile!
Synopsis: There’s danger in the court of James I. Magical metal-worker Joan Sands must reforge the Pact between humanity and the Fae to stop the looming war.
As violence erupts across London and the murderous spymaster Robert Cecil closes in, the Fae queen Titanea coerces Joan into joining the royal court while holding her godfather prisoner in the infamous Tower of London.
Now Joan will have to survive deadly machinations both magical and mortal all while balancing the magnetic pull of her two loves–Rose and Nick–before the world as she knows it is destroyed forever.
On Sale: April 23, 2024, via Amulet. Order here.
The Secret Elephant by Ellan Rankin
Any book about an elephant is probably going to end up on the top of my books to read for the month because they’re my absolute favorite This stunning picture book was inspired by a true story and showcases these remarkable animals.
Synopsis: While carefree monkeys dangle in trees, powerful lions quietly sunbathe, and majestic giraffes walk back and forth, a terrible war looms on the horizon and changes everything. People stop coming to the zoo and most of the animals huddle together with their mates in their different enclosures– except for one baby elephant that was all alone. As bombs shake the ground and flashes of orange light burn across the sky, the solitary elephant grows more and more afraid and confused. Her keeper understood and spends as much time with her elephant as she can. And when it becomes impossible to stay in the enclosure, the keeper makes the daring choice to bring the elephant home.
But it’s hard to hide an elephant, even a baby one, and it gets even harder as the elephant grows. After a time, the elephant is ordered back to the zoo. Still, the kind-hearted keeper could not abandon her friend, so she sets up house right alongside the elephant for the remainder of the war.
Many years later, when the keeper no longer works at the zoo, she returns to visit her friend. Her friend, much older now as well, remembers the keeper and her brave kindness.
On Sale: April 23, 2024, via Random House Studio. Order here.
What’s Eating Jackie Oh? by Patricia Park
Oh, I love a book about cooking and its usually at the top of my books to read list. The Art of French Kissing by Brianna R. Shrum comes to mind and Alexis’ Hall delightful rom-com series, Winner Bakes All. If you love a foodie novel like I do, I highly recommend checking out this witty, charming and timely YA novel by Patricia Park.
Synopsis: Jackie Oh is done being your model minority. She’s tired of perfect GPAs, PSATs, SATs, all of it. Jackie longs to become a professional chef. But her Korean American parents are Ivy League corporate workaholics who would never understand her dream. Just ask her brother, Justin, who hasn’t heard from them since he was sent to Rikers Island.
Jackie works at her grandparents’ Midtown Manhattan deli after school and practices French cooking techniques at night–when she should be studying. But the kitchen’s the only place Jackie is free from all the stresses eating at her–school, family, and the increasing violence targeting the Asian community.
Then the most unexpected thing happens: Jackie becomes a teen contestant on her favorite cooking show, Burn Off! Soon Jackie is thrown headfirst into a cutthroat TV world filled with showboating child actors, snarky judges, and gimmicky “gotcha!” challenges.
All Jackie wants to do is cook her way. But what is her way? In a novel that will make you laugh and cry, Jackie proves who she is both on and off the plate.
On Sale: April 30, 2024, via Crown Books For Young Readers. Order here.
