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March/April Fiction Reviews

The booksellers at Book Bin have been busy reading (and getting the store ready for Independent Bookstore Day on April 29!)

Among the previous releases that we love handselling (see the Bestseller List), these new books may appear as a bestseller in the near future.

Don't forget to look at the Upcoming Fiction List to pick the books you are most like to read, and preorder them today!

Homecoming: A Historical Mystery Cover Image
$32.00
ISBN: 9780063020894
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Mariner Books - April 4th, 2023

Available in Hardcover on April 4 from Mariner Books

          Get ready Kate Morton fans; her next book, Homecoming, hits the shelves on April 4, 2023. As with her other books (e.g. The Clockmaker's Daughter and The House at Riverton), I always feel like I'm going on a very long, tricky, and exciting journey. Kate's books are full of details and encompass several, intricately woven yet wonderful multi-generational stories always containing family secrets. In 1959 in Adelaide Hills, Australia on Christmas Eve, a local delivery man makes the gruesome discovery of a family on the banks of the creek bed by their mansion: the Turner family appears to have died in the midst of their holiday picnic. The small town where the tragedy took place finds itself embroiled in the mystery and investigation of how the family died and why the tragedy happened. In 2019 London, Jess is a struggling journalist who can't seem to find her next story nor her next stage in life after a bad breakup. She gets a call that her Grandma Nora who raised her is in the hospital and has an uncertain prognosis. Jess flies to her hometown of Sydney prepared to put her career on hold and take care of her grandmother, but while staying at her grandmother's house, Jess finds a book written decades ago about the Turner Family Tragedy in Adelaide Hills. Intrigued by the unsolved mystery, Jess starts her own investigation. Why did Grandma Nora have this book in her house? Was Nora related to the Turner Family in some way? If so, why had Jess never heard about this story from her grandmother or her mother? Who was the author of this book? As Jess's investigation proceeds, she learns more about Grandma Nora, the people in Adelaide Hills, her family, and the extremes people will go to in order to protect the ones they love and the secrets they are keeping. Just when you think you know where this story is going, you find out that you're wrong! This was another magical and complex story from Kate Morton that I highly recommend reading. PS: it's so hard to write a proper review for Kate's books without giving things away!!

Reviewed by Julie Harms-Muth

 


Pineapple Street: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel) Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593490693
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Pamela Dorman Books - March 7th, 2023

Available in Hardcover Now from Pamela Dorman Books

          The ups and downs of an "old-wealth" New York family are the focus of Jenny Jackson's debut novel. The title refers to the location of the family home in Brooklyn Heights where the three children (Darley, Cord, and Georgiana Stockton) grew up. It is now Cord's home with his new wife, Sasha, who complains that the house is filled-to-overflowing with antiques and everyone's childhood crap, and she constantly feels out of place in this ritzy world. Big sister Darley's happy existence turns rocky with a financial turn-of-events in her husband's life, and little sister Georgiana's world is shaken when she truly falls head-over-heels in love. There's funny banter and family drama in abundance, and it can sometimes be too much, but I truly liked the Stockton family and rooted for their success (while laughing out loud or rolling my eyes at their exasperating attitudes). As soon as the lines of communication between them open up, happy endings flow (a must for me!) This novel was like looking through a window, definitely not in a mirror, but it was fun getting to know the Stockton children and their significant others.

Reviewed by Alli Gilley


Hello Beautiful (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593243732
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: The Dial Press - March 14th, 2023

Available in Hardcover Now from Dial Press

          We loved Dear Edward, the 2020 novel from Ann Napolitano, and we are so excited to have this new, good family drama here at Book Bin!  Hello Beautiful is the story of the Padavano family living in Pilsen. The four sisters are beautifully drawn, wonderfully developed, and each have unique personalities. Some you love and some make you angry, but there is so much to discuss about the parents and sisters: their relationships, their quirks, and their secrets. When William, an only child and Northwestern basketball player marries the oldest sister, the layers of the family drama grow even deeper. With characters that you can relate to and who find a place in your heart, Hello Beautiful is engaging, honest, and heart-wrenching. 

Reviewed by Amy Morrison

 


I Have Some Questions for You: A Novel Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593490143
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Viking - February 21st, 2023

Available in Hardcover Now from Viking Books

          "Local Author" and Pulitzer-Prize Winner Rebecca Makkai has a new novel to put you on edge. Bodie Miller is a successful podcaster and film professor in LA, as far away from her traumatic past at Granby Academy in New Hampshire as she can be. When Bodie is invited back to Granby to teach a short course on podcasting, she buries her fears and flies across the country. The tragic question of what happened to Thalia Keith on the night of the play has been long buried in Bodie’s mind, but returning to campus forces it back to the surface. This novel explores the fascinating world of true-crime and the reality of wrongful conviction and how our past is always a part of us. We are delighted to bring you another novel from local author and Book Bin favorite Rebecca Makkai! 

Reviewed by Amy Morrison

 


The Great Reclamation: A Novel Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593420119
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Riverhead Books - March 28th, 2023

Available in Hardcover Now from Riverhead Books

          Through the lives of The Great Reclamation's main characters, we learn the modern day history of Singapore. Ah Boon lives with his family in a fishing village. His father, uncle, and older brother are fishermen, and although most of the village thinks he should follow in their footsteps, his mother insists he get an education. At school he meets Siok Mei, a brazen girl who lives with her uncle because her parents are Communists fighting for their country's independence. Growing up, Ah Boon must decide if he will follow Siok Mei, the girl he loves, or work for those in power who claim they are doing what is best for Singapore. I always enjoy reading a well-written work of fiction where I can also learn something. The Great Reclamation fits the bill. Also, Heng's characters illustrate that often in life there is no easy, comfortable answer.

Reviewed by Nancy Randall

 


Birnam Wood: A Novel Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780374110338
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - March 7th, 2023

Available in Hardcover Now from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

          Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton's third novel is part thriller and part cautionary tale. Birnam Wood (taken from Macbeth) is the name of a "guerrilla" gardening group in New Zealand that grows fruits and vegetables on lands that are not theirs. They also often use supplies that belong to others. Mina Bunting is the mastermind behind this concept. The American billionaire Robert Lemoine offers Mira thousand of dollars if the group will farm land that he has recently acquired. Tony, a self-made reporter who recently left Birnam Wood, thinks the proposal sounds fishy and believes Lemoine should not be trusted and tries to uncover what is really going on. This is another book that takes a while to get into but is worth the effort. Birnam Wood is not an easy read. There are several subplots that don't come together right away, but for me the tense, frightening ending made the whole novel worthwhile.

Reviewed by Nancy Randall

 


The Candy House: A Novel Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781476716770
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Scribner - March 7th, 2023

Available in Paperback Now from Scribner Books

          A summary of The Candy House is next to impossible. It is a sequel (in a way) to A Visit from the Goon Squad with about fifteen stories-- some very interrelated and some not so much. If it has a central character, it is Bix Bouton, a brilliant Black man who has invented a cube called "know your own conscious". Characters can not only save their own memories with this device, they can also share them with others. Although this makes The Candy House sound like science fiction, that is too easy a description for this multi-faceted book. If you read A Visit from the Good Squad and enjoyed it, or at least appreciated it, you will want to read The Candy House. Although at times it was difficult to keep all of the characters straight, I found Jennifer Egan's novel sometimes brilliant and always interesting.

Reviewed by Nancy Randall