Spring Awakening

Ratty and Co. reloaded.

Can an aging American heiress find love this Spring — before the season's out?

Nolan Jackson is a journeyman carpenter by trade and a wanderer by nature. Following a shocking workplace accident in his temporary home of Las Vegas, he uproots himself from the tentative relationships he has made and heads west towards the ocean.

The specter of war and questions of the Western-film notions of masculinity are woven throughout the novel; from the damage to Nolan’s family by the Vietnam War in which his father fought, to the ubiquity and consequence of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to slow unraveling of his brother’s marriage and mental state, to the mysterious series of arsons being set around their small town.

Ultimately, Journeyman is an important, timely novel about men and brothers finding their way in the 21st century West.

Scientists throughout history, from Galileo to today’s experts on climate change, have often had to contend with politics in their pursuit of knowledge. But in the Soviet Union, where the ruling elites embraced, patronized, and even fetishized science like never before, scientists lived their lives on a knife edge.

A masterful book that deepens our understanding of Russian history, Stalin and the Scientists is a great achievement of research and storytelling, and a gripping look at what happens when science falls prey to politics.

A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism--the role it plays in evolution as well as human history--is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we’ve come to accept as fact. In 0zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism’s role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic.

Schutt takes readers from Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party--the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history.

Vivian doesn’t feel like she fits in — never has. She lives alone in a house in north Dublin that her great-aunt left to her. She has no friends, no job and few social skills. She knows she is different.

Rooted Dublin’s Northside, Eggshells is a whimsical, touching story about loneliness and friendship and hope.

Donna Leon’s bestselling mystery novels set in Venice have won a multitude of fans for their insider’s portrayal of La Serenissima. From family meals to coffee bars, and from vaporetti rides to the homes and apartments of Venetians, the details and rhythms of everyday life are an integral part of this beloved series. But so are the suffocating corruption, the never-ending influx of tourists, and crimes big and small. Through it all, Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti has been an enduring figure. A good man who loves his family and his city, Brunetti is relentless in his pursuit of truth and some measure of justice.

In Earthly Remains, the twenty-sixth novel in this series, Brunetti’s endurance is tested more than ever before. After an interrogation gone awry, Brunetti goes on a break. But when the caretaker of his holiday inn goes missing, he feels compelled to abandon his leave of absence.

Meet Marc Solomon, an Israeli ex-Navy commando now living in L.A., who is falsely accused of money laundering through his asset management firm. As the Solomons’ Santa Monica home is raided, Marc’s American wife, Carolyn—concealing her own dark past—makes hopeless attempts to hold their family of five together. But news of the scandal makes its way from America to the rest of the Solomon clan on the kibbutz in the Jordan River Valley, where we witness the things that threaten to tear the family apart.

Reminiscent of Nathan Englander’s For the Relief of Unbearable Urges and Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, and told with razor-sharp humor and elegant acuity, What to Do About the Solomons is an exhilarating first book from a bright new star in fiction.

It is the summer of 1989 when Lucas witnesses an event that will tear his family apart. Over a decade later, his estranged father succumbs to a suspected heart attack.
Lucas shuns grief and escapes to New York with his colleague Mariana. However, a dark secret from his past threatens to re-emerge and destroy the burgeoning relationship before it has even begun.

This is a novel about family, love and redemption and will be your one spring read that will rejuvenate you.

Based on a series of lectures that Allen Ginsberg gave at the Naropa Institute in Colorado and then at Brooklyn College, the book is many things at once: literary primer for those new to the Beats; unique and approachable personal account (at times similar to a memoir) by Ginsberg of the major figures and events of the movement; important new resource for academics and Beat enthusiasts.

As a whole, THE BEST MINDS OF MY GENERATION provides a unique glimpse into a lost world where writing, for this group, was a mystical, hermeneutical process deeply connected to the visual arts and to the spiritualism of the East—a moment very much of its time, but one which changed the landscape of world literature forever.

Janine di Giovanni travelled to Syria, reporting both sides of the conflict. And what emerged is this rather short book stuffed with too many graphic accounts of torture, rape, and killing. It's an unconventional spring read, one with perhaps too much violence and cruelty. But it's a reminder that life is not all the flowers and picture-perfect moments.

Jeffrey Eugenides' novel evokes a dreamlike, nostalgia that really befits the spring/summer mood. Five girls try to live in the stifling household, but their lives are about to meet a very abrupt ending. It's not the happiest book to read in Spring, but we can guarantee your spring/summer will never be the same once you let his imagery get to you.

Oh we always love a badass woman here at Bookmate. Lorna Sage She's unapologetic about her eccentric upbringing in a small town and writes with crystal clarity about her childhood in the 50s, but also delves into her grandparents and parent's lives starting from 1910. Three generations of great women in one book — this is what spring dreams are made of.

This semi-biographical novel is based in part on the life of Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, Orlando transforms into different characters at each point in the century, before finally becoming a mother and wife. It's a clever, clever way of weaving in a biography, a love story, and feminist values all in one solid novel. It's one of Woolf's more accessible novels, making this a great read on a balmy night.

Spring welcomes a new beginning, and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar encourages the reader to forge their own identity, instead of conforming and becoming a prisoner to society's pressures. Not as heavy as Tolstoy's War and Peace, but definitely riveting enough to get your mind going, even if you're on the beach.

After a wet, droll winter comes warmth and a new hope. Four different women leave four from post-World War I England leave damp and rainy London for a holiday at a secluded villa on the Italian coast. Through the tranquil, warm environments, the four women rediscover hope and love that lets them carry on with life.

What screams spring more than a garden full of flowers and ferns? Heck, even Anne Hathaway wanted to be protagonist Mary Lennox so badly!

Fun, easy reads are the way to go this Spring, and Where I Belong is one feel-good read. When Corrine has to move to the boondocks of Texas after her father gets laid off in New York, she has to learn how to adapt without her credit cards and shopping sprees. But is it all that bad?

If you're still feeling lethargic and sleepy from winter's slum, it's time to heat things up with a pie and a.. wait — murder? Blackberry Pie Murder is a deliciously written book weaving in crime and mouth-watering baked goods. Can Hannah Swensen now bake in peace?

If there's one thing we can't resist — it's loyal dogs who stay with the family. Garth Stein's New York Times Bestseller Racing in the Rain is a heartwarming yet heart-wrenching look at family, love and the absurdities of human life — all through the eyes of their family dog no less.