The Spring 2025 Reading Group Guide Preview

Dazzling Debuts

Anna O: A Novel
By Matthew Blake
(Harper Paperbacks, 9780063314146, $18.99, Feb. 25)
“A deftly plotted, original murder mystery with a shocking premise: the murderer committed the crime while sleepwalking and never woke up to face her crimes. Anna O will keep you guessing with unexpected twists that you will never see coming.”
—Maxwell Gregory, Madison Street Books, Chicago, IL

Flux
By Jinwoo Chong
(Melville House, 9781685891930, $19.99, Mar. 11)
“An enthralling labyrinth with a wry voice, Flux brings to life a spectrum of qualities usually denied in Asian American masculinity. For readers who despair about techno-orientalism, Flux moves the sexless Asian male caricature into the spotlight as a fully realized human being.”
—Jihye Shin, The Nonbinarian Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY

Headshot: A Novel
By Rita Bullwinkel
(Penguin Books, 9780593654125, $18, Mar. 11)
“Headshot is a stunning Cubist novel, weaving in and out of the minds of eight young women in a boxing tournament in Reno. In prose as taut as muscles, we are shown the fighters’ pasts, presents, and futures via commentary on social expectations, childhood, and how to hit the person in front of you.”
—Doron Klemer, Octavia Books, New Orleans, LA

The Husbands: A Novel
By Holly Gramazio
(Vintage, 9780593687512, $18, Mar. 18)
“Think Sliding Doors meets Groundhog Day, by way of Blake Crouch. A woman discovers she can have an endless supply of new husbands — every time she sends one up to the attic a new one comes down. An incisive reflection on the multiple selves we can be (or pretend to be) on social media.”
—Bridget Piekarz, The Book Cellar, Chicago, IL

I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both: A Novel
By Mariah Stovall
(Soft Skull, 9781593767938, $17.95, Feb. 18)
“I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both feels like the ribbons of a mixtape unraveling in the knot of your stomach. This is a harrowing story of music, mental illness, growing up and apart, and finding yourself in the unique position of truly loving someone to death.”
—Kenzie Hampton, The Bookshop, Nashville, TN

Piglet: A Novel
By Lottie Hazell
(Holt Paperbacks, 9781250289810, $18.99, Mar. 4)
“A riveting and bittersweet feast that you’ll chew on for days. Hazell masterfully captures hunger in all its forms, lifting the veil on the illusions we feed on in an exacting world. It’s hard not to root for Piglet, even harder not to relish in the chaos.”
—Lauren Abesames, Wind City Books, Casper, WY

Family & Coming of Age

Anita de Monte Laughs Last: A Novel
By Xochitl Gonzalez
(Flatiron Books, 9781250786241, $18.99, Mar. 4)
“Anita and Raquel are everyday Latinas whose passionate and ‘loud’ presences are weaponized as ‘other’. In this novel, you see both sides of this coin as well as the constant battle between art and artist. Should art be the only thing remembered when an artist is gone?”
—Vina Castillo, Kew & Willow Books, Kew Gardens, NY

Catalina: A Novel
By Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
(One World, 9780593449110, $18, May 13)
“Catalina is the perfect sardonic intellectual punk narrator for this story about coming of age undocumented in the US. Think The Idiot meets Catcher in the Rye and they both get drunk with Villavicencio’s first book.”
—Maxim Iosef Tamarov, Papercuts Bookshop, Boston, MA

A Good Happy Girl: A Novel
By Marissa Higgins
(Catapult, 9781646222674, $16.95, Mar. 4)
“Unsettlingly weird and obsessively hot, A Good Happy Girl will become a staple in the Lesbian Canon! A woman matches with a married lesbian couple and forms an obsessive relationship with the pair. This book is deliciously disturbing!”
—Haley Calvin, The Novel Neighbor, Webster Groves, MO

Hard by a Great Forest: A Novel
By Leo Vardiashvili
(Riverhead Books, 9780593545041, $19, Jan. 28)
“Fairytales, folklore, and Kipling characters add enchantment to this story about a family separated by Georgia’s post-Soviet civil war. Full of humor and heart, Vardiashvili’s story compelled me to look up maps, photos, and timelines of his original home.”
—Margo Grimm Eule, East City Bookshop, Washington, DC

My Friends: A Novel
By Hisham Matar
(Random House Trade Paperbacks, 9780812985092, $18, Jan. 7)
“A moving story of the toll that exile extracts. Khaled is exiled from his native Libya after participating in a protest against the Qaddafi regime. As he builds a life in London, he can’t help but hold himself apart from the people that he loves — to protect them from real danger, and to protect himself from any more loss.”
—Victoria Ford, Comma, a Bookshop, Minneapolis, MN

True North: A Novel
By Andrew J. Graff
(Ecco, 9780063161436, $18, Jan. 28)
“I wish I could start this book again for the first time. A dream, a river that takes and gives, and putting everything on the line for that dream. I’d read this book just because of the river, but the people, family, town and the beauty alongside life’s difficult choices — that is what made me love this book.”
—Amy Jiron, HearthFire Books, Evergreen, CO

Historical Fiction

The Bullet Swallower: A Novel
By Elizabeth Gonzalez James
(Simon & Schuster, 9781668009338, $17.99, Jan. 21)
“Elizabeth Gonzalez James pulls from her family history to tell us a story of inherited trauma and how the past impacts the present. The dual-timelines really drive this idea home. By the end of the book, I was rooting for El Tragabalas and was in tears as the story wound down.”
—Crispin Jeffrey-Franco, Stacks Book Club, Oro Valley, AZ

The Curse of Pietro Houdini: A Novel
By Derek B. Miller
(Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, 9781668020890, $18.99, Jan. 28)
“Italy, 1944, WWII raging. Massimo, all of 14, is taken under Pietro’s wing after the kid was beaten and left for dead. Masterful, with wonderful characterizations, powerful wartime claustrophobia, and surprising role twists. Utterly satisfying.”
—Tee Minot, Christopher’s Books, San Francisco, CA

The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson: A Novel
By Ellen Baker
(Mariner Books, 9780063351219, $18.99, Feb. 25)
“Cecily is orphaned at four and sold to a traveling circus at seven. We follow her as she survives in 1930s middle America, and then 80 years later as her family uncovers long-held secrets. The novel explores traditional themes of love and loss with the unique twist of modern DNA tracing.”
—Megan Strang, Sidetrack Bookshop, Royal Oak, MI

Night Watch: A Novel
By Jayne Anne Phillips
(Vintage, 9781101972793, $18, Feb. 11)
“The new state of West Virginia is still slowly recovering from the Civil War in 1874 when ConaLee and her mother are taken by a Confederate veteran con man to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Phillips focuses on the history of the asylum and includes real photographs and documents from the time period.”
—Valerie Koehler, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX

The Storm We Made: A Novel (Indies Introduce)
By Vanessa Chan
(S&S/Marysue Rucci Books, 9781668015155, $18.99, Feb. 11)
“The Storm We Made is an excellent read on the fallout of war — the people and parts of ourselves that are lost irrevocably at the hands of imperialist machines. Of course, woven in are also a number of tender, beautiful moments of love.”
—Noah Grey Rosenzweig, Loyalty Bookstores, Washington, DC

Wandering Stars: A Novel
By Tommy Orange
(Vintage, 9780593311448, $18, Feb. 18)
“The perfect follow up to There There. Orange seamlessly weaves through multiple generations and leaves you in that complicated space of wanting so much more but also satisfied with the time we’re allowed with each character.”
—Nadine Teisberg, Birchbark Books & Native Arts, Minneapolis, MN

Nonfiction & Memoir

Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel
By Shahnaz Habib
(Catapult, 9781646222391, $16.95, Dec. 3, 2024)
“It’s interesting that the subtitle of this book describes it as an ‘irreverent’ history of travel — this is some of the most moving travel writing I’ve read in recent years. It’s funny, witty, sometimes scathing, but it’s also deeply sincere, personal, and imbued with a love of the world and the people who inhabit it.”
—Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, NC

Grief Is for People
By Sloane Crosley
(Picador, 9781250371782, $18, Feb. 25)
“A stunning, clear-eyed examination of the absurdity of death and the swath of emotions with which it leaves the living — particularly death by suicide, and the ramifications someone’s death can have on an entire industry. Compelling and utterly readable.”
—Jessilynn Norcross, McLean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, MI

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story
By Leslie Jamison
(Back Bay Books, 9780316374989, $18.99, Feb. 11)
“In this memoir, the author blows the doors and windows open with a completely honest account of her struggles and triumphs, and the bittersweet experience of family. The beauty of her language and her laser-sharp observations spoke wisdom I needed to hear.”
—Jolayne Harrington, The Book Bungalow, St. George, UT

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
By Hanif Abdurraqib
(Random House Trade Paperbacks, 9780593448809, $20, Mar. 25)
“On one hand, this is a book about basketball, and about feelings. On another hand, this is a book about loving a place that is unconsidered, or when it is considered, is feared. On the last of these too-many hands, this is a deeply personal collection of prose and poetry about the cradle of Ohio, the ways that basketball shaped so many of the state’s children, and the twin pillars of grief and rhapsody holding up those who love where they are from.”
—Danielle King, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, MO

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
By David Grann
(Vintage, 9780307742490, $21, Feb. 25)
“I loved this book of adventure on the high seas, shipwrecks, castaways, and salvation. As he always does, Grann tells a thrilling tale that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. I went in not knowing anything of the true history, but I left with a deep appreciation for what the sailors on the Wager went through.”
—Robert Connolly, Jabberwocky Bookshop & Cafe, Newburyport, MA

The Wives: A Memoir
By Simone Gorrindo
(Gallery/Scout Press, 9781982178505, $20.99, Mar. 18)
“My father was in the Air Force for twenty one years. My mother said that when you marry a military man this is what you sign up for: the long nights, never being there, missing birthdays, Christmas, life. I am so grateful for those who fight for our safety everyday. But if it wasn’t for the wives who stay back and hold everything together, none of that would matter. This is Gorrindo’s book and her story. Her voice is an impactful one.”
—Amy Thue, Whimsy on Main, Milbank, SD

Small Bites

American Bulk: Essays on Excess
By Emily Mester
(W. W. Norton & Company, 9781324035237, $17.99, Nov. 26, 2024)
“These essays were really well written and I enjoyed the arc of the book. Mester is astute and funny in a way I found relatable and inviting, never off-putting. I recommend it to those who enjoyed Priestdaddy. There is something more than essays on excess here.”
—Charlie Jones, A Room Of One’s Own Bookstore, Madison, WI

Cacophony of Bone: The Circle of a Year
By Kerri ní Dochartaigh
(Milkweed Editions, 9781639551262, $18, Feb. 4)
“Cacophony of Bone is not a book easily described, as it truly encapsulates the feelings and happenings of a well-rounded and contemplative existence. Gardening, literature, and the instinctual yearning of motherhood are just a few of the focal themes of this year-long diary, all the while relating to the everyday natural world and mysticism of Irish life and belief.”
—Andrew King, Ridgecrest Books, Shoreline, WA

The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac: Stories
By Louise Kennedy
(Riverhead Books, 9780593540930, $18, Dec. 3, 2024)
“I generally have difficulty reading short stories, but that was not the case with this book. While obviously interconnected, each individual story managed to pack a punch in a way that left my jaw dropped. Her affective tone throughout the collection coursed through me like a chill breeze, matching the often harrowing encounters these women endured.”
—Sophia Abuabara, Seminary Co-Op Bookstores, Chicago, IL

Table for Two
By Amor Towles
(Penguin Books, 9780593296394, $19, Apr. 8)
“Towles’ stories effortlessly draw in the reader — not to the pasts of others, but to our shared humanity. Towles’ respect for people is once again palpable in this short story collection. For fans and for new readers, this collection is not to be missed.”
—Katy Holmes, Innisfree Bookshop, Meredith, NH

Thornhedge
By T. Kingfisher
(Tor Books, 9781250409195, $15.99, Dec. 31, 2024)
“This was a great quick read. The author did an excellent job of making a concise book that was also fun and engaging.”
—Kat Stecker, HUDUBAM Booktraders, Clarksville, TN

Thunder Song: Essays
By Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe
(Counterpoint, 9781640096943, $16.95, Mar. 4)
“LaPointe returns with a new memoir that is honest, at times disturbing, but always interesting. She wants us to know what it is like to be a queer Indigenous woman in America today, and to understand what has made her who she is. Join me in celebrating these essays for the insight and truthful beauty they contain.”
—Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, WA