Paperback Picks
Once the grim dark of January has passed, February is when tiny green shoots of hope begin to emerge. It’s when we finally scrape ourselves off the couch, get dressed up and take our honeys out to dinner for Valentine’s Day. It’s when we honor Black History Month, to remember that though our country’s foundations were built on the sin of slavery, we can work together to build a better and more equitable world.
This list of new-in-paperback titles can help shake you out of your torpor and get back to the important task of thriving with the help of a good book.
“The Tulsa Race Massacre” by the Department of Justice (Melville House, $16.99). On Jan. 10, the Justice Department released its long-awaited review and evaluation of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, in which Tulsa’s wealthy Black community was attacked and effectively destroyed. The report disproved the long-held official position that Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street” was burned to the ground by Black rioters, instead proving that white citizens planned and systematically committed the murder of hundreds of Black Tulsans.
On Jan. 22, the Trump Administration ordered the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to halt all reports and investigations, but the Tulsa report will still be available on bookstore shelves nationwide, thanks to Brooklyn publisher Melville House’s ongoing project of publishing affordable paperback editions of important government reports. (The Melville House edition of the Mueller report was a bestseller in 2019, and this month, they will also publish special council Jack Smith’s final report to the attorney general on President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.)
“Night Watch” by Jayne Anne Phillips (Vintage, $18). The 2024 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction arrives in paperback. The Pulitzer committee called Phillips’ latest “A beautifully rendered novel set in West Virginia’s Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in the aftermath of the Civil War.” The heartfelt story of a former Union soldier gaining the trust of a mother and daughter who have been victimized by the war won praise from nearly every book critic out there.
“The Book of Love” by Kelly Link (Random House Trade Paperbacks, $20). Link has been gathering a die-hard fandom with her masterful short stories for decades now, but until “The Book of Love,” she had never before written a novel. It was worth the wait — “Love” allows Link to expand her weird fantasy worldbuilding to a broad scope, spinning a grand yet intimate tale of death, resurrection, magical journeys and, above all else, love.
“David Lynch’s American Dreamscape” by Mike Miley (Bloomsbury Academic, $29.95). The film world is still processing David Lynch’s passing last month, and the release of this academic work exploring Lynch’s influences in cinema, music and literature will offer some solace and insights to film nerds who vibed with Lynch’s uniquely off-kilter, dreamlike cinematic vision.
“Deep End” by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley, $20). The latest novel from the bestselling author of “Love on the Brain” and “The Love Hypothesis” is a perfect Valentine for romance-minded readers. It’s about Scarlett Vandermeer, an injured platform diver who develops feelings for a disciplined swim team captain in the lead-up to the Olympic Trials, which means readers can expect lots of saucy swimwear and tense competition.
“Wandering Stars” by Tommy Orange (Vintage, $18). Orange’s novel “There There” was the kind of breakout sensation that almost never happens anymore. The anticipation for his follow-up was nothing less than stratospheric, and “Wandering Stars” — an ambitious book that follows Native American lives across centuries of American history, from the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 to a young Cheyenne boy who barely survives a school shooting in 2018 Oakland — managed to surpass those expectations.
“Who’s Afraid of Gender?” by Judith Butler (Picador, $20). The author of the hugely influential manifesto “Gender Trouble,” which opened up conversations about the constraints of gender roles, returns with a book that examines how authoritarian movements have used regressive ideas about gender in order to gain political power.
“Why We Die” by Venki Ramakrishnan (William Morrow Paperbacks, $17.99). A Nobel Prizewinning molecular biologist explains aging and death in accessible, clearheaded language. Ramakrishnan also explores a question that has haunted humanity forever: Will humans ever live centuries-long lives, or even achieve immortality?
“I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com” by Kimberly Lemming (Berkley, $19). If you’re torn between getting your sweetie a sci-fi novel, a steamy romance or a thrilling adventure for Valentine’s Day, here’s some great news: You don’t have to choose! Dorothy Valentine, a wildlife biologist, is chased by a lion into a spaceship, travels (with the lion) to another planet full of dinosaurs and falls in love with two aliens. Why bother buying a bunch of books of different genres when you can buy one that has it all instead?