Spring is just around the corner. As the days get longer, you’ll want to spend those extra hours of sunlight with a good book. This month’s must-reads include astronaut and activist Amanda Nguyen’s debut memoir, Torrey Peters’ experimental follow-up to her 2021 debut bestseller Detransition, Baby, and Abdulrazak Gurnah’s first new novel since winning the Nobel Prize four years ago.
Other notable March releases include Swamplandia! author Karen Russell’s long-awaited second novel, Slate senior writer Scaachi Koul’s much-anticipated sophomore essay collection, and journalist Josh Duboff’s charming debut about the struggle to maintain friendships in your thirties.
Here, the 12 new books you should read this month.
Sucker Punch, Scaachi Koul (March 4)
Scaachi Koul’s follow-up to her 2017 essay collection, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, looks at the radical changes the journalist experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. With humor, she writes about the end of her marriage, the loss of her job, and her mother’s cancer diagnosis. Throughout Sucker Punch, she also examines the many fights she has had with her mom, her ex-husband and too many online trolls, questioning whether any of them were actually worth having.
Buy Now: Sucker Punch on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Saving Five, Amanda Nguyen (March 4)
To tell the story of her life so far, activist and astronaut Amanda Nguyen consulted her younger selves. Her debut memoir, Saving Five, uses magical interludes to incorporate her points of view at the ages of five, 15, 22, and 30 in the hopes of better understanding the lingering effects of an abusive childhood, campus sexual assault, and the subsequent fight for justice that resulted in the passage of the 2016 Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act.
Buy Now: Saving Five on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Count My Lies, Sophie Stava (March 4)
Sophie Stava’s debut, Count My Lies, is a suspenseful thriller told from the perspective of a compulsive liar. Nail technician Sloane Caraway has a knack for spinning the truth, but she might have just met her match. When a seemingly harmless white lie lands her a job as a nanny with a wealthy New York couple, she believes she’s hit the jackpot. But she quickly discovers that her new employers have secrets of their own—ones that they’d prefer to keep hidden.
Buy Now: Count My Lies on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
The Tell, Amy Griffin (March 11)
With her debut memoir, The Tell, power broker Amy Griffin attempts to understand the intense anxiety that has plagued her throughout adulthood. Her search for answers leads her back to her hometown of Amarillo, Texas, where she reckons with a childhood trauma that she buried so deep as to have nearly forgotten it. Through alternative therapies, Griffin attempts to excavate her repressed memories of sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted adult in the hopes of finally finding closure.
Buy Now: The Tell on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Stag Dance, Torrey Peters (March 11)
Over the course of a decade, bestselling author Torrey Peters wrote Stag Dance, a provocative collection of three short stories and a novella that each explore what happens when people are forced to hide their gender and sexual identities. The four works cover a hormonal apocalypse spawned by a jealous ex, a secret romance gone wrong between students at a Quaker boarding school, a young person’s quest to find their true self during a night out in Las Vegas, and a dance party thrown by a group of male lumberjacks where some volunteer to pose as women.
Buy Now: Stag Dance on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
The Antidote, Karen Russell (March 11)
Bestselling author Karen Russell’s sophomore novel, The Antidote, is a fantastical Dust Bowl epic that acts as an allegory for the current climate crisis. After a small Nebraska town is devastated by a severe dust storm, the community’s outsiders must come together to create a more sustainable future. The rag-tag group features a Polish wheat farmer, his orphan niece, an enchanted New Deal photographer, a chatty scarecrow, and a “Prairie Witch,” whose body is a depository for the memories the settlers wish to forget. As they journey onward, the characters must confront the mistakes of their personal and collective pasts.
Buy Now: The Antidote on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Goddess Complex, Sanjena Sathian (March 11)
Sanjena Sathian’s second novel, Goddess Complex, begins with a 30-something anthropology student ghosting her actor husband after terminating a pregnancy. When her estranged spouse mysteriously disappears before they can finalize their divorce, she embarks on a mind-bending journey to find him, only to come face-to-face with her still–pregnant doppelgänger.
Buy Now: Goddess Complex on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Firstborn, Lauren Christensen (March 18)
New York Times Books Review editor Lauren Christensen began writing her debut memoir after losing her unborn child, picking up in the moments after she returns home from terminating a dangerous pregnancy at 22 weeks. Firstborn, which acts as a remembrance for her late daughter, offers an achingly candid record of her unfathomable loss.
Buy Now: Firstborn on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
O Sinners!, Nicole Cuffy (March 18)
In Nicole Cuffy’s new novel, journalist Faruq Zaidi embeds himself inside a California cult following the death of his devout Muslim father. Faruq has every intention of exposing the mysterious collective, but upon his arrival he strikes up a friendship with the group’s charismatic leader, a Vietnam War veteran named Odo. As their bond deepens, Faruq begins to wonder whether Odo’s unorthodox, but alluring teachings could be the cure-all to his grief.
Buy Now: O Sinners! on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Early Thirties, Josh Duboff (March 18)
Journalist Josh Duboff’s debut novel, Early Thirties, puts its focus on a pair of 30-something best friends who are growing up and seemingly growing apart. After a devastating breakup, Victor struggles with his mental health and the pressures of his new job as a celebrity journalist for a popular print publication. Usually, he’d turn to his long time bestie Zoey for solace, but she’s got her own things to worry about including whether or not she should break off her engagement. The two soon realize that in order to move forward, they will have to find their way back to one another.
Buy Now: Early Thirties on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Theft, Abdulrazak Gurnah (March 18)
Nobel Prize-winner Abdulrazak Gurnah’s twelfth book, Theft, is a coming-of-age story set in Tanzania at the turn of the century. When teenager Karim goes to live with the mother who abandoned him as a child, he finds himself drawn to Badar, a poor servant boy who works for her. After Badar is accused of stealing, he is sent away. In this postcolonial novel about truth, ambition, and identity, Gurnah follows the two men as their paths cross over several decades.
Buy Now: Theft on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Tilt, Emma Pattee (March 25)
Tilt, climate journalist Emma Pattee’s debut, begins at an IKEA in Portland, Ore. where a very pregnant woman named Annie is shopping for baby furniture. Then the unthinkable happens: a massive earthquake unlike anything the Pacific Northwest has ever seen. In its aftermath, Annie realizes the only way home from the store is to walk, forcing her to embark on a horrifying, anxiety-ridden pilgrimage to safety.
Buy Now: Tilt on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
