{"id":5410,"date":"2016-03-10T06:43:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T11:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5410"},"modified":"2016-04-01T07:24:59","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T11:24:59","slug":"on-your-reading-radar-best-books-of-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5410","title":{"rendered":"On Your Reading Radar: Best Books of Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"chairs\"

(photo: Andy Atzert, creative commons license)<\/p><\/div>\n

Already reading as fast as I can, I stumbled onto Google\u2019s enticing menu of the 30 Best Books of Spring<\/a>. The \u201cdelightfully unhinged\u201d stories in Helen Ellis\u2019s The American Housewife<\/em> sound like fun, as does Dexter Palmer\u2019s Version Control<\/em> about a possible near-future involving a woman who works in customer support for an internet dating site and her scientist husband is trying, it seems, to develop a time machine.<\/p>\n

Jo Nesbo is always a winner in the crime\/fiction genre (new book: Midnight Sun, <\/em>whose protagonist is a runaway hitman), though I\u2019m still trying to steel myself to read his reportedly most chilling book, 2012\u2019s The Snowman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Two more that sound intriguing are: Alexander Chee\u2019s The Queen of the Night<\/em> (an opera singer combs her colorful past for clues about who has betrayed her) and Jung Yun\u2019s Shelter<\/em> (a financially struggling couple must take in his parents. Tensions mount.). Finally, I cannot resist a book whose title is The Little Red Chairs <\/em>(Edna O\u2019Brien), set in Ireland, about a war criminal in hiding.<\/p>\n

Frankly, having read so, so, so<\/em> many book blurbs, they all start to sound cheesy. I tried to get past that in reviewing the Google list. You might pick out others. But wait, there\u2019s more.<\/p>\n

Publisher\u2019s Weekly<\/em>\u2019s list of \u201cMost Anticipated Books of Spring 2016<\/a>,\u201d plays it safe by emphasizing well-known authors. Its list is \u201cculled from the 14,000+ titles\u201d known to be forthcoming soon [!]. With that tsunami of prose, who can blame the editors for defaulting to the reliable?<\/p>\n

In that rundown are a couple of debuts, but also:<\/p>\n