The Book Report: Washington Post critic Ron Charles (March 9)
By Washington Post book critic Ron Charles
With spring just around the corner, it's time for a new crop of fresh books:
Eric Puchner's "Dream State" is one of those big family novels you just want to fall into. It starts, very charmingly, with the planning for a wedding at a summer house in Montana. Cece is about to marry Charlie, but then Charlie's best friend shows up, and their plans veer off in ways nobody expects.
With humor and heartbreak, this sweeping saga explores the way choices – big and small – shape lives and families for decades.
READ AN EXCERPT: "Dream State" by Eric Puchner
"Dream State" by Eric Puchner (Doubleday), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
Fans of "Americanah," rejoice! Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Dream Count" (Knopf) marks her long-awaited return to fiction.
It's an intricately woven novel that spans continents and classes. Following four Nigerian women in North America and Africa – a travel writer, a lawyer, a banker and a maid – Adichie explores love, ambition, family expectations, and the forces that shape women's choices.
With her signature wit and insight, she examines privilege and power, intimacy and betrayal, and the weight of history, delivering a story as thought-provoking as it is moving.
READ AN EXCERPT: "Dream Count" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"Dream Count" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
The history of the Dust Bowl in Nebraska gets swept up in a magical new novel by Karen Russell, called "The Antidote" (Knopf). At the center of the story is a woman known as a prairie witch, who stores memories that people don't want to carry any more. And with farms going bankrupt and a string of murders terrifying the town, there are lots of things these folks don't want to remember.
A whole bunch of unforgettable characters swirl through these pages, including a lucky Polish farmer, a teenage basketball star, and a photographer whose time-traveling camera reveals more than some folks want to see.
READ AN EXCERPT: "The Antidote" by Karen Russell
"The Antidote" by Karen Russell (Knopf), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available March 11 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
The weather is finally getting warmer, the ground is about to thaw, and Martha Stewart is here to get you ready with her biggest gardening book in more than 30 years.
"Martha Stewart's Gardening Handbook: The Essential Guide to Designing, Planting, and Growing" (Harvest) offers her expertise to gardeners of all levels. Packed with advice about plant care, year-round maintenance and planning, this guide to trees, shrubs, specialty gardens and vegetables is filled with color photos to inspire you, even if you don't get off your sofa or pick up a shovel.
READ AN EXCERPT: "Martha Stewart's Gardening Handbook"
"Martha Stewart's Gardening Handbook: The Essential Guide to Designing, Planting, and Growing" (Harvest), in Hardcover and eBook formats, available March 18 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
That's it for the Book Report. For these and other suggestions about what to read this spring, talk with your local bookseller or librarian.
I'm Ron Charles. Until next time, read on!
For more info:
- Ron Charles, The Washington Post
- Subscribe to the free Washington Post Book World Newsletter
- Ron Charles' Totally Hip Video Book Review
- Bookshop.org (for ordering from independent booksellers)
Produced by Lucie Kirk. Editor: Chad Cardin.
For more reading recommendations, check out these previous Book Report features from Ron Charles:
- The Book Report (January 26)
- The best books of 2024
- The Book Report (October 13)
- The Book Report (July 14)
- The Book Report (June 2)
- The Book Report (April 28)
- The Book Report (March 17)
- The Book Report (February 18)
- Ron Charles' favorite novels of 2023
- The Book Report (October 22)
- The Book Report (September 17)
- The Book Report (August 6)
- The Book Report (June 4)
- The Book Report (April 30)
- The Book Report (March 19)
- The Book Report (February 12, 2023)
- The Book Report: Ron Charles' favorite novels of 2022
- The Book Report (November 13)
- The Book Report (Sept. 18)
- The Book Report (July 10)
- The Book Report (April 17)
- The Book Report (March 13)
- The Book Report (February 6, 2022)
- The Book Report (November 28)
- The Book Report (September 26)
- The Book Report (August 1)
- The Book Report (June 6)
- The Book Report (May 9)
- The Book Report (March 28)
- The Book Report (February 28)
- The Book Report (January 31, 2021)
