Forthcoming Books - Spring 2025

By:
Robert Sanford
Fricas
“You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” - Pablo Neruda

We're very excited to share with you the upcoming books of this Spring; the library has an eclectic selection of new titles arriving in April and May. Ocean Voung's newest novel, The Emperor of Gladness, has already been described as "a masterwork," by Bryan Washington. Colm Tóibín remarked that it's, "Epic in its sweep, the novel also handles intimacy and love with delicacy and deep originality." 

For our writer members and artists, we have exceptional books about the creative process from translation to writing. Viet Thanh Nguyen's To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other, is a moving and unflinchingly personal meditation on the literary forms. Rebecca Brody, from a Library Journal starred review, called To Save and Destroy, is " an essential addition for collections about the process and theory of writing, authors of diverse backgrounds, and particularly the experiences of Asian Americans, immigrants, and refugees in the United States."

The first author to win the Booker Prize twice, Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee's new book, Speaking in Tongues is a book about languages, what languages can and what they cannot do. This dialogue between Coetzee and a leading eminent translator, Mariana Dimópulos, provocative ideas emerge about the evolution of language and the challenge of translation. Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz reviewed Speaking in Tongues as, “The kind of book you get once in a lifetime, Speaking in Tongues is a mithril-blend of scholarship and artistry that will transform your ideas of language, translation, identity, and possibly the universe.”

Coming in May from Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow is an exciting new biography of Mark Twain. Kirkus, in a starred review, called Mark Twain, “Essential reading for any Twain buff and student of American literature." 

Additionally, the library is beyond elated to be acquiring the lauded first book from our very own Katie Fricas. Bishakh Som has praised Checked Out as “an immersion into the twists and turns of the creative process, a questing exploration into how we grow the roots of a story, well-told!”

 From Nora Roberts to Andy Warhol, April and May at the library will make for an exceptional spring reading experience at Central Park's cherry trees or our members' room. You can pick up a physical brochure of Forthcoming Books at the circulation desk. For a more complete account of our recent acquisitions, check out New Books, a list we publish at the beginning of every month that is available on the website or at the Circulation Desk. If there is something you're looking forward to reading, but don't find on this list, simply request it from the Acquisitions Department by filling out a request slip at the Circulation Desk or log in to our website and use the Suggest a Purchase form.

April

Fiction
Nonfiction

MAY

Fiction
Nonfiction