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Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
Bringing new meaning to the phrase "eat the rich," Land of Milk and Honey is a mesmerizing novel set in a world where all crops have been smothered by smog, livestock is a thing of the past, and most food is made from tasteless, genetically modified mung bean flour. So when a young chef scores a job at an elite "research facility" in the Italian Alps, she jumps at the opportunity to try anything different. What she discovers is a secluded oasis not only untouched by the blight but stocked with the rarest, most decadent ingredients. Far from black-and-white, Land of Milk and Honey explores the ethics of pleasure and privilege in a dying world. The language is delicious, and the theme is timely.
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May
"The awe-inspiring, the numinous, is all around us, all the time. It is transformed by our deliberate attention. It becomes meaningful when we invest it with meaning."
The opposite of May's book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times (which I think is mostly about bed rotting), Enchantment is a spring book. In it, she offers firsthand advice for overcoming the inevitable malaise of living in our era by approaching the experience with curiosity and tenderness. Will this book change your life? Maybe not. But in just over 200 pages, you'll at least gain some insight into seeing the world with a fresh sense of wonder and renewed optimism.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Speaking of magic, The Ministry of Time has all that plus spy-thriller intrigue, romantic seduction, and workplace antics. This perfect escapist novel is set in the near future and follows a government worker in the UK who goes to work for a new, top-secret ministry. Her task? Shepherding a handsome time traveler from the year 1847 through the modern world—a task which not only includes bringing him up to speed on everything that's happened since, but also introducing him to things like Spotify and washing machines and air travel. The rest, as they say, is history.
Note: Bradley has been accused of plagiarising a Spanish television show of the same name for the novel, which she vehemently denies. If you want to decide for yourself, El Ministerio del Tiempo is currently available on Apple TV.
James by Percival Everett
In a word, James is brilliant. It is darkly funny, deeply moving, and thought-provoking. The action-packed novel tells the story of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the enslaved runaway Jim’s point of view. By giving him a voice and agency, Percival breathes life and complexity into a once-flat character, rendering him heroic and intelligent and, above all, human. If you read one book on this list, make it James.
Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here was the best book I read last year, and though Now Is Not the Time to Panic doesn’t have quite the same absurdist bent, it’s an excellent story, especially if you grew up in the ’90s before cell phones and streaming services.
In the novel, Frankie and Zeke, two small-town high school friends stare down a long summer with nothing to do. So, they literally get creative. One day they draw up a poster with abstract imagery and a mysterious message: The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us. Next step: make thousands of copies using the Xerox machine in Frankie's garage and post them all around town. The cryptic, copious posters start a panic that includes kidnappings and murders and acts of defiance, growing so globally far out of hand that Frankie and Zeke could never take responsibility as they watch their art become a sensation. Twenty years later, when a reporter discovers that Frankie might be behind the historic hysteria, is she ready to fess up?
The story is both a light, fun take on teenagehood and what it means to be an artist, and a coming-of-age tale that several times moved me to tears. Highly recommend.
Worry by Alexandra Tanner
Do not read this one if you aren’t ready to relive the horror show that was 2019 (which we’re also kind of reliving now?).
Do read this if you:
-Have a sister
-Are curious about what it’s like to have a sister
-Have a complicated relationship with your mother, who lives in Florida 🙋🏻♀️
-Really got into The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
-Lived in New York in your early 20s
-Have been roasted by the Co-Star astrology app
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Another trigger warning for COVID-era content—but if you can work through the PTSD, you’ll find that Anne Patchett is a masterful writer with an uncanny storytelling ability that’s both complex and easy to digest. Tom Lake follows Lara, a mother of three girls who, during the lockdown of 2020 at their cherry farm in Michigan, recounts for them tales of her long-ago, short-lived career as an actress. In flashbacks, she describes her passionate love affair with Peter Duke, a fellow actor who would go on to become very famous. For a single summer in the 1980s, they were holed up at an idyllic, prestigious camp-style theater company at the namesake Tom Lake, putting on plays interspersed with dips in the water and off-stage drama. The book is lovely, fully enjoyable, and feels like a cozy blanket. Soft enough for spring.
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
(I'm realizing time travel is a bit of a theme for my spring reading recommendations. A desperate wish to transport myself to another era? You don't say...)
In a placid village, 16-year-old Odile trains to become a conseillère, a member of a select council that decides who crosses the town's heavily guarded borders to visit the towns in the other valleys. Why so much security? To the west is a replica of the village, living 20 years in the past; to the east, 20 years in the future. Visitors seek approval to, say, visit the west to see (from afar) a family member who has died in the present. Or they might visit the east to see a grandchild born after they've passed. When Odile thinks she recognizes two visitors in her own time, she must decide whether to act on the information and throw reality into a tailspin, or stick to the system even if it hurts those she loves.
