February 22, 2025
This week we have a slate of novels that revel in the feminine mystique. On offer is a dishy look at women in Hollywood perfect for the forthcoming Oscars; a mind-bending novel about homicide in an unnamed Latin American city; a mystery focused on a post-partum illness; a romance in the indie music world; and a novel powered by a surprising proposition to rekindle marriage.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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Crush
By ADA CALHOUN
Published by VIKING
Calhoun’s recent memoir about her father showed off her skills as a storyteller. Now we have a delectable, seductive novel about a couple’s open relationship (the husband suggests it) that destabilizes our protagonist’s solid marriage. She recounts her early experience of flirting (“…never act like you think you’re hot…. When it comes to sex appeal, confidence trumps looks.”) When the new rules apply in her marriage, she surprises herself with a crush that sets the drama in motion. It is a dizzying journey, full of sharp observations. Inspired in part by the author’s own story, the novel is a smart, sexy investigation into desire.
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The Strange Case of Jane O.
By KAREN THOMPSON WALKER
Published by RANDOM HOUSE
Walker (The Dreamers), now in her third haunting fiction, describes her latest novel as “a speculative mystery about memory, love, and the mysteries of the human mind.” It is also a story about a curious case of amnesia. Jane O., a former patient of psychiatrist Henry Byrd, wakes up in Prospect Park with no idea how she got there. This is ironic given her mind-bogglingly sharp memory for the events of her own life. When Byrd takes her on again, he finds her lapsed fugue state and hallucinations confounding. Jane’s letters to her baby son are also a puzzle. This is a captivating novel that asks fascinating questions about the nature of reality.
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Deep Cuts
By HOLLY BRICKLEY
Published by CROWN
Percy and Joey bond over music (think Hall & Oates) in a bar one night in 2000. She is obsessed with songs and lyrics; he turns out to be a songwriter. More than the standard love story, the author’s first novel digs deeper into her characters: the growing pains, friendship vs. romantic entanglement, challenges of being on the cusp of life in your 20s. “The way he smiled so easily, and frowned so easily, tortured by a blue-eyed soul song.” Of course he was already attached. With good locations (including the Brooklyn bar scene) and smart writing, Brickley identifies that sweet spot of uplifting popular fiction blended with literary chops.
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Death Takes Me
By CRISTINA RIVERA GARZA
Published by HOGARTH
Translated by Robin Myers and Sarah Booker
Mexican writer Rivera Garza is a Pulitzer Prize-winner (Liliana’s Invincible Summer) whose exciting new novel is a genre-busting ride. It is a detective story about the rampage of murders in an unnamed Latin American city where our protagonist is a professor. Male bodies stack up, with words of poetry written at the scene of the crime, and the primary detective has something to prove. The professor, who becomes an informant for the case, is traumatized when she comes upon the body on one of her runs: “…sometimes there are dead cats. Pigeons. No, never men…. This is my first body.” Rivera Garza once more explores themes of violence, gender, politics, and art.
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The Talent
By DANIEL D'ADDARIO
Published by SCOUT PRESS
This Variety reporter’s debut novel arrives just in time for awards season. In his snarky new satire, five actresses—Adria, Bitty, the Countess, Jenny, and Davina—are in the running for the year’s best acting prizes. The quintet includes the new, the old, the serious, the frivolous, and the desperate, all striving to win top honors and stay in the game. It’s both amusing to read about their competitive, often-panicked measures and insightful in its depiction of the challenges women in ‘the industry’ have faced since the dawn of motion pictures. D’Addario, an insider himself, pulls back the curtain on how life on the public stage shapes its participants.
