This month’s 10 best picks include novels that probe issues such as masculinity, reconciliation, ambition, and remembrance. They span historical eras from 18th-century Venice to 1960s America. Among the nonfiction titles is the story of a wrongly incarcerated man and the Texas legal system that kept him imprisoned for decades.
And a history of bookstores in the United States explores how many of these shops served as centers for social change. The Singer Sisters, by Sarah Seltzer Songwriter Emma Cantor was born into folk music royalty. But Emma’s parents and aunt – music legends since the ’60s – hid a big secret from her.
Is reconciliation possible? Seltzer’s debut novel ends on a high note that will leave readers whistling. Burn, by Peter Heller Storey and Jess are on a hunting trip in Maine when secessionists in the state spark a civil war. Peter Heller’s page-turners, typically set in the wild, peek beneath the hood of rugged masculinity.
His complicated heroes fight to uphold human decency. The Instrumentalist, by Harriet Constable How to balance ego and ambition with community and kindness? Harriet Constable gives voice to violin prodigy Anna Maria della Pietà, a real-life musical genius raised in a Venetian orphanage in 1704 and taught by none other than composer Antonio Vivaldi. The city’s shimmering wealth and fetid corruption leap from the page; so, too, does music’s transcendent, radiant power.
Mina’s Matchbox, by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Step.