The months are marching by and we’re trying to enjoy the light, airy energy of spring for as long as we can. As we head outside to enjoy the warmer weather, we’re taking things slowly and basking in the season known for new beginnings. As part of this fresh start, we’ve added some new titles to our reading list. Perfect for breezy days and quiet moments full of potential, here are the titles we recommend picking up before the heat of summer sets in.
For A Sunny Day Read
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Narrated by a humanoid machine that runs on solar power, Klara and the Sun is the perfect book to drop in your tote when you’re heading out on a sunny day. While you relax on your picnic blanket and recharge your own battery in the sun, explore the boundaries of what it means to be human.
About the Book
Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and one that explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
For A Compelling Climate Read
On Time and Water By Andri Snær Magnason
As nature blooms and springs to life around us, we find ourselves reflecting on what the future holds for our declining planet. Although statistics and scientific projections are important and necessary, they sometimes fail to evoke true emotion surrounding the issue of climate change. If you’ve had a similar experience, On Time and Water will be a refreshing and enlightening read. Using personal experiences, poetic storytelling, and scientific evidence, Magnason is able to convey the gravity of what’s at stake when it comes to our planet, in a unique and emotionally compelling way.
About the Book
Based on interviews and advice from leading glacial, ocean, climate, and geographical scientists, and interwoven with personal, historical, and mythological stories, On Time and Water is a rich and compelling work of narrative nonfiction that illustrates the reality of climate change—and offers hope in the face of an uncertain future. Moving from reflections on how one writes an obituary for an iceberg to exhortation for a heightened understanding of human time and our obligations to one another, throughout history and across the globe, On Time and Water is both deeply personal and globally-minded: a travel story, a world history, and a desperate plea to live in harmony with future generations.
For A Post-Spring Clean Read
Sisters by Daisy Johnson
The descriptions of wet, peeling wallpaper and dusty abandoned rooms in Sisters will give you a renewed appreciation for your spring cleaning efforts this year. A face-paced thriller set in a dilapidated farmhouse in the English countryside, we were frantically turning the pages to get to the bottom of this gripping mystery.
About the Book
Born just ten months apart, July and September are thick as thieves, never needing anyone but each other. Now, following a case of school bullying, the teens have moved away with their single mother to a long-abandoned family home near the shore. In their new, isolated life, July finds that the deep bond she has always shared with September is shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand. A creeping sense of dread and unease descends inside the house. Meanwhile, outside, the sisters push boundaries of behavior—until a series of shocking encounters tests the limits of their shared experience, and forces shocking revelations about the girls’ past and future.
For A Spring Break Read
Safe as Houses by Marie-Helene Bertino
Whether you’re taking a vacation or living vicariously through someone else’s travel adventures, this collection of short stories is perfect for your next getaway (even if it’s just to the nearest café). Ideal for short reading sessions, get lost in a story before leaving bed on a lazy Sunday morning, or between dips in the pool on vacation.
About the Book
An alien girl faxes notes on human beings to her superiors, college friends with supernatural powers disappear at Church, Bob Dylan shows up for Thanksgiving, a girl has dinner with the idea of her ex-boyfriend, a door to door salesman peddles human hearts. Safe as Houses is set in a kind of Philadelphia where the laws of physics are mere suggestions.
For A Pollinator Inspired Read
The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia
One of our favourite facts: one in three bites of food we take is thanks to pollinators like bees. Inspired by the unmistakable drone of these busy black and yellow workers moving from flower to flower, we suggest adding The Murmur of Bees to your spring reading list.
About the Book
From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can—visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats—both human and those of nature—Simonopio’s purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.
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What We’re Reading This Winter
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