12 New Books for February
This month, we’ve got our eyes on Immemorial, Smother, and 10 other titles by writers on the West.
AUTOPSY (OF AN EX TEEN HEARTTHROB): POEMS OF RAGE, LOVE, SEX, AND SADNESS, BY AVAN JOGIA
A decade and a half after his breakthrough on the series Victorious, Jogia offers a gritty glimpse into his time in the spotlight with this poetry collection. The poems here represent a “self-dissection,” examining Jogia’s relationship with fame, love, spirituality, and his sense of self. Gallery Books, February 11
BLACK WOODS, BLUE SKY, BY EOWYN IVEY
In Ivey’s novel, a young mother, Birdie, waits tables in a remote Alaskan town and parties hard, often at the expense of her six-year-old daughter, Emaleen. When the child is saved after getting lost in the forest, Birdie becomes attracted to the rescuer, a scar-faced man named Arthur, and moves in with him deep in the wilderness. Settling into her new country lifestyle, Birdie forages berries and goes mushroom hunting, but her comfort lapses after Emaleen sees Arthur roaming the forest in a bearskin. Random House, February 4
BROTHER BRONTË, BY FERNANDO A. FLORES
Taking place in 2038, Flores’s novel unfolds in an apocalyptic authoritarian Texas, where women have become forced laborers and reading is illegal. In the town of Three Rivers, literature has become an underground activity, cherished by the last literate citizens, including Neftalí. As the government and polluting corporations become more violent, it’s up to Neftalí and her best friend, Prosperina, to create a rebel organization to fight back against destruction and dictatorship. MCD, February 11
DEEP CUTS, BY HOLLY BRICKLEY
Brickley’s debut novel centers on an indie rock collaboration between Percy and Joe, who meet in a jukebox bar in Berkeley. The pair collaborate for years, until their lives split, as Joe goes on tour and Percy earns an MFA. Without Percy to guide him, Joe begins to plagiarize her songs, seemingly lost without her. But luckily for him, her love for music lingers. Crown Publishing Group, February 25
THE EDGE OF WATER, BY OLUFUNKE GRACE BANKOLE
After Hurricane Katrina, Bankole found herself wondering about the West African market women she’d encountered in New Orleans and their lives before and after the storm. The result is this novel, which focuses on Amina, a young Nigerian girl who leaves Ibadan for New Orleans despite her mother’s warnings. The book is narrated by the omniscient voice of a Yoruba deity. Tin House, February 4
FEARLESS EYE: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF BARBARA RAMOS, SAN FRANCISCO AND CALIFORNIA, 1969–1973, BY BARBARA RAMOS, SALLY STEIN, STEVEN A. HELLET, AND RACHEL KUSHNER
Ramos photographed San Francisco in one of its most essential eras, capturing scenes of everyday life and cultural upheaval. But she stopped shooting shortly thereafter, leaving much of her work underappreciated. This collection gathers a generous array and includes a preface by California Book Club author Rachel Kushner. Chronicle Books, February 11
IMMEMORIAL, BY LAUREN MARKHAM
Can mourning begin before its subject has fully disappeared? In Immemorial, part of a nonfiction series from Transit Books, Alta Journal contributor Markham asks this question about grieving what is to come. In the era of climate change, when we are at risk of losing so much, her book-length essay contemplates how we deal with feelings of impending doom and assign them cultural value, much as we do for other, more personal losses. Transit Books, February 4
THE LOST AND THE FOUND: A TRUE STORY OF HOMELESSNESS, FOUND FAMILY, AND SECOND CHANCES, BY KEVIN FAGAN
Fagan recently retired from the San Francisco Chronicle after three decades covering homelessness in California. As a kid, he was unhoused himself. Here, he shares the stories of Rita and Tyson, camping out with them on a traffic median called Homeless Island and helping them as they struggle to get free of the streets. Atria/One Signal Publishers, February 11
NOTES ON SURVIVING THE FIRE, BY CHRISTINE MURPHY
Murphy’s debut thriller involves a forest fire and a trail of mysterious deaths on a college campus in Southern California. When Sarah, a dissolute graduate student, reports that a peer has raped her at a house party, no one believes the story except her best friend, Nathan. Later, Nathan is discovered to have overdosed, supposedly from a drug he didn’t use. So Sarah decides to investigate. Knopf Publishing Group, February 25
ORIGIN STORIES, BY CORINNA VALLIANATOS
A married couple on a desert vacation ruminate on their extramarital affairs, as one comes to an end and the other is just beginning. A children’s book illustrator feels conflicted when her mother takes offense at the depiction of mothers in her work. The stories in Vallianatos’s new collection center on the fraught details of relationships in many forms—between mother and child, spouses, and friends. Graywolf Press, February 4
THE REBEL EMPRESSES: ELISABETH OF AUSTRIA AND EUGÉNIE OF FRANCE, POWER AND GLAMOUR IN THE STRUGGLE FOR EUROPE, BY NANCY GOLDSTONE
In her latest investigation of remarkable women, Goldstone portrays the mid-19th-century empresses Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, celebrities of the Victorian era. Balancing historical context with private details, her book—set against some of the most scandalous and pivotal moments in European history—presents these rulers as modern women who rejected tradition and championed progressive causes. Little, Brown and Company, February 25
SMOTHER: POEMS, BY RACHEL RICHARDSON
How do we create new life in a world that’s burning up before our eyes? In this collection of poems, Richardson uncovers deep sadness and fury while pondering this question. Inspired by a series of California wildfires, the poet reflects on the connections between the female body and the burnt terrain. Ultimately, she seeks solace in her friends while wrestling with how to raise her daughters. W.W. Norton & Company, February 18
Jessica Blough is a freelance writer. A former associate editor at Alta Journal, Blough is a graduate of Tufts University where she was editor in chief of the Tufts Daily.
Maisie Hurwitz is a freelance contributor to Alta Journal living in Los Angeles. She is a recent graduate of Wesleyan University, where she received her bachelor's degree in English and creative writing.
Will Garrett, Alta Journal's 2024 summer intern, has written for Colorado College's Cipher magazine and the Catalyst newspaper.
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