13 new books to put a spring in your step
As days get longer, so does our reading list. These are the new books to make a beeline for this spring
Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine
Punk guitarist Viv Albertine is fast becoming one of the most riveting voices in non-fiction. Following on from 2014’s multi-award-winning Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys., this new memoir is an excavation of family bonds and personal identity. Reality and imagination entwine to tell the true story of a daughter dealing with her mother’s declining health. But Throw Away Unopened is so much more than just the account of Albertine’s life: stark, unsentimental prose laced with humour and vulnerability goes beyond standard storytelling to make us part of the self-discovery.
A Table in Venice by Skye McAlpine
Skye McAlpine has the most covetable life in Venice – think scrubbed pine tables heaving with ripe fruit and fresh patisserie, heady florals and the eclectic crockery of our flea-market fantasies. From a higgeldy-piggeldy kitchen in a quiet corner of Italy’s most picturesque city, the Skye Loves and From My Dining Table blogger makes baking and entertaining into an artform, shared in snapshots elegant writiting and exquisite protography. Her debut cookbook is a celebration of Venetian home-cooking – the kind of simple, hearty and heartfelt dishes that the troops of tourists in St Marks could only dream of finding. They are the recipes McAlpine loves, relies on and returns to, from sticky apricot tarts to griddled asparagus.
Ordinary People by Diana Evans
Ordinary London lives are captured with lyricism and integrity in Diana Evans’s story of two black couples at turning points. In the city, Melissa and Michael negotiate the desire for a baby and the hypocrisy of intimacy. In the suburbs beyond, Stephanie and Damian find their quiet family life in crisis. Against the backdrop of Barack Obama’s victory and London’s shifting racial landscape, this is a quiet, vividly-drawn novel about the the moments of angst and joy that make up everyday life.
First, Catch by Thom Eagle
Rather than recipes, Thom Eagle’s ‘Study of a Spring Meal’ gives us a vibrant homage to the ideas, impulses and instincts of a chef at work. With prose as bright, varied and juicy as the morsels it describes, First Catch is a collection of reflections celebrating the flavours of spring. From a guide to the subtle, slow techniques of cooking an onion to the ruminations of the simple combination of salt, butter and spring greens, the essays remind rushed, mindless eaters to stop and savour each taste.
You Had Better Make Some Noise, Phaidon
As we all spin in a whirlpool of ideas, statements and unrest, find emotional liferafts in this punchy collection of postcards. Phaidon’s You Had Better Make Some Noise distills inspiring, rousing statements from great philosophers, activists, revolutionaries, and creatives into a pocket-sized collection of quotes. The bold black white and yellow book brings a burst of intellect to the coffee table, as you flick through or dip in for moments of galvanising thought and inspiration.
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
English Patient author Michael Ondaatje weaves another tale of love, loss and memory against a backdrop of World War II. Warlight revolves around the shadowy nature of memory. After London’s blitz, 14-year-old Nathaniel and his sister Rachel are left in the care of a dubious, strange man called The Moth. The mysteries come together through a complex, non-linear narrative that revisits and revises each development with careful scrutiny.
Beneath a Ruthless Sun by Gilbert King
Pulitzer prize-winner Gilbert King’s investigation into the case of a developmentally challenged young man who was found guilty of rape in the 1950s has the same compelling, crusading take on a real-life ambiguity that will have fans of the Serial podcast or Netflix’s Making a Murderer hooked. Class, racial politics and corrupt officials make for a murky true story with plenty of twists and an unsettling relevance to the contemporary justice system.
The Recovering by Leslie Jamison
Addiction and recovery are ingrained into literary history, from Dylan Thomas’s excess of whiskey and Ernest Hemingway’s Havana Club habit, to the candid accounts of alcoholism in from the likes of AA Gill and Amy Liptrot. Now Leslie Jamison, author of 2014’s luminous non-fiction collection The Empathy Essays, returns with an unflinching exploration of alcoholism. The Recovering combines the broader social and creative relationship with drinking and a more personal reflection of losing control and finding sobriety. With no preaching or absolutes, she captures both the highs and lows of an early adulthood spent succumbing to and overcoming alcoholism.
Circe by Madeline Miller
Classics teacher turned award-winning writer Madeline Miller translates the narrative mastery and lyricism of Greek mythology for modern readers. First there was surprise hit Song of Achilles, a best-selling re-imagining of The Illiad. Now she draws inspiration from The Odyssey. Honing in on the plight of Helio’s outcast daughter, Circe. The story of a young woman deemed strange and threatening, banished to an island and left to discover her own extraordinary powers is exhilarating. Rather than faithfully adhering to Homer’s text, Miller takes ownership, transmuting the tale with the craft of a contemporary novelist. The result is irresistible in its own right, and all too easy to read in a single sitting.
Mad About the House by Kate Watson-Smyth
As aesthetes and design buffs already know, Mad About the House is one of the best places on the internet for all things interiors. Award-winning journalist Kate Waston-Smyth has a gift for cutting through industry jargon and picking out trends and and making them work in any space. The Mad About the House book takes you from the fundamentals of space-saving layouts to the nitty-gritty of buying furniture and accessorising with style. Practical hacks sit alongside more creative guides, covering everything from a single bookshelf to the whole house.
Our House by Louise Candlish
Taking us behind closed doors and into the unseen architecture of a home and a marriage, Our House is this year’s answer to the likes of Gone Girl and Girl on a Train. Writer Louise Candlish taps into that curiosity about property that has us all surfing Zoopla and scouring Right Move, with a thriller that begins with a couple moving into a terraced house. But this house is where Fi Lawson lives with her husband and children – and she didn’t put it up for sale. From this unnerving disbelief the story simmers into a dark, twisty study of secrets and betrayal.
The Madonna of the Mountains by Elise Valmorbida
The vistas and daily rhythms of rural Italy come to life with sumptuous detail in this story of one woman's strength through decades of war. As Maria's sleepy hometown in the Veneto region becomes a base for soldiers, Fascists and Communists in WWII, she must find a way to keep her family safe.
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
New York Times best-selling writer Meg Wolitzer bores into the barbed tangles of contemporary feminism with disarming charm. The Female Persuasion revolves around the all-too recognisable desire to be accepted by those you admire the most. Shy student Greer Kadetsky is in awe of famous feminist Faith Frank. Wolitzer captures the ambition and angst of growing up with warmth and wisdom in a book that’s at once searingly intelligent and gloriously light.