BOOKSHELF
April Books
Fiction
Heartwood, by Amity Gaige
In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is 42-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping. Beverly, the determined Maine state game warden tasked with finding Valerie, leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a 76-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.
Great Big Beautiful Life, by Emily Henry
Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. They’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years, the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives — tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied and scandalous families of the 20th century. Margaret has invited them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story. But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story, pieces they can’t swap or put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room. And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story — just like Margaret’s — could be a mystery, tragedy or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it.
Nonfiction
Making the Best of What’s Left: When We’re Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered, by Judith Viorst
In a career that has spanned more than 50 years, Viorst has captivated readers with her bestselling children’s books and collections of poetry. Now in her 90s, she writes about life’s “Final Fifth,” those who are 80 to 100 years old. Her signature blend of humor and vulnerability infuses personal anecdotes and observations, drawing you into her world of memories and candid conversations. She discusses the afterlife (she doesn’t believe in it, but if it exists, she hopes her sister-in-law isn’t there). And she explores the late-in-life meanings of wisdom and happiness, second chances and home. With a wit that defies age, Viorst navigates the terrain between grief and levity that will resonate with those in their Final Fifth as well as anyone who has parents, relatives or friends in their 80s and beyond.
Boat Baby: A Memoir, by Vicky Nguyen
Starting in 1975, Vietnam’s “boat people” fled the Communist government and violence in their country any way they could, usually by boat across the South China Sea. Nguyen and her family were among them. Attacked at sea by pirates before reaching a refugee camp in Malaysia, her family survived on rations and waited months until they were sponsored to go to America. But deciding to leave and start a new life in a new country is only half the story; figuring out how to be American is the other. Boat Baby is about growing up in America with unconventional Vietnamese parents who didn’t always know how to bridge the cultural gaps. It’s a childhood filled with misadventures and misunderstandings. Nguyen’s parents approached life with the attitude, “Why not us?” In the face of prejudice, they taught her to be gritty and resilient, skills she used as she combatted stereotyping throughout her career, fending off the question “Aren’t you Connie Chung?” to become a leading Asian American journalist on television.
Children's Books
Frank and Bert: The One with the Missing Cookies,
by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros
Best friends don’t get much more adorable than Frank and Bert. They’ve played hide-and-seek (kind of), learned to ride a bike (with only a few uh-ohs), and now they’re going on a picnic with fingers crossed for no rain, no wasps, and no scary squirrels. A fun read-together on a springtime picnic. (Ages 3-6.)
My First Lift-the-Flap Fairy Tales,
by Ingela Arrhenius
Just what did Jack trade for those magic beans? What destruction did Goldilocks wreak upon the three bears? Find out this and much more in this retro-cool lift-the-flap collection of classic nursery rhymes that includes QR codes for read-along recordings. (Ages birth-6.)
The Cartoonists Club, by Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud
A graphic novel that is both a friendship story and the perfect choice for budding comics, artists, storytellers and all-around creative kids, readers of The Cartoonists Club can learn about making comics and use their creativity and imagination for their own storytelling adventures. (Ages 9-12.)
A Burning in the Bones 3,
by Scott Reintgen
Fantasy, thriller and adventure all wrapped up in one, the Waxways series is the perfect choice for tweens looking for something slightly more sophisticated. Book 1 was a survival thriller, book 2 a political chess match, and now book 3 is a plague story laced with complicated warfare that will have readers on the edge of their seats. Don’t miss this thrilling conclusion to a fabulous series. (Ages 12-16.)