10 New Books for March
This month, we’ve got our eyes on The Pacific Circuit, Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip, The Dream Hotel, and seven other titles from authors of and on the West.
THE ANTIDOTE, BY KAREN RUSSELL
A Prairie Witch, the witch’s apprentice, a farmer, and a scarecrow. These are not the characters of an L. Frank Baum novel but rather those of MacArthur “genius” grant recipient and Portland author Russell’s highly anticipated second novel—one that, in contrast to her debut, Swamplandia!, she playfully dubbed “drylandia” in an interview. The Antidote imagines five lives in a fictional Nebraska town during the catastrophic Dust Bowl of the 1930s, mixing devastation and humor, magic and history to produce an alchemic and revelatory new work. Knopf, March 11
BLACK TUNNEL WHITE MAGIC: A MURDER, A DETECTIVE’S OBSESSION AND ’90S LOS ANGELES AT THE BRINK, BY RICK JACKSON AND MATTHEW MCGOUGH
LAPD detective Jackson was the inspiration for stories by James Ellroy and prior California Book Club author Michael Connelly, but until now, he had yet to pen his own book. Black Tunnel White Magic is the true story of a Los Angeles case that haunted him throughout his career, one that featured a brutal stabbing, Charles Manson, and the satanic panic. With candor and clarity, Jackson and cowriter McGough invite the reader into every step of the detective process, allowing them to assemble the facts just as Jackson did during the original investigation. Mulholland Books, March 4
COASTAL: 130 RECIPES FROM A CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP, BY SCOTT CLARK AND BETSY ANDREWS
Clark, fine-dining chef turned proprietor of the beloved Half Moon Bay train-car sandwich spot Dad’s Luncheonette, has collected a trove of recipes from his trips along the California coast, sourcing ingredients and learning from fishermen, crabbers, farmers, winemakers, and foragers. The resulting cookbook is vibrant, family-friendly, and sure to inspire new cuisine creativity. Packed with seafood-forward recipes and local ingredients, Coastal is a great addition to any California kitchen and the perfect gift for a Golden State foodie. Chronicle Books, March 11
THE DREAM HOTEL, BY LAILA LALAMI
Set in a not-too-distant-future Los Angeles, the latest novel from California Book Club author Lalami imagines a predicament that is eerily plausible: What if we weren’t free from surveillance even in our dreams? Sara’s ordinary life is interrupted when, upon arriving home at LAX from a conference in London, she is detained as a security risk based on the content of her dreams. Wielding the masterful skills of a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lalami writes a fifth novel and first foray into dystopia that is especially resonant and provocative in an age when surveillance and data collection are increasingly ingrained in our society. Pantheon, March 4
A GREEK TRAGEDY: ONE DAY, A DEADLY SHIPWRECK, AND THE HUMAN COST OF THE REFUGEE CRISIS, BY JEANNE CARSTENSEN
Over the past decade, San Francisco journalist Carstensen has covered the Syrian-refugee crisis in Turkey and Greece. Her new book focuses on an awful day in global history: October 28, 2015, when a small boat packed with refugees seeking asylum capsized off the coast of Greece, sending hundreds of people into the sea. Carstensen humanizes the people on board who died as well as the heroic efforts of the locals who attempted to rescue them, even as governments failed to act. Atria/One Signal, March 25
OUR BEAUTIFUL BOYS, BY SAMEER PANDYA
Our Beautiful Boys tells a realistic story of three high school football teammates and the repercussions of one fateful night in the caves of their fictional Southern California town—an event that infuses the boys’ lives with burdening secrecy and creates tension in the parental politics of their community. The novel’s epigraph is a passage about the Marabar caves from E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India that evokes thematic links between the books. From the author of California Book Award finalist Members Only comes a new novel that similarly explores the dynamics of race, class, and sports in a California suburb. Ballantine Books, March 18
THE PACIFIC CIRCUIT: A GLOBALIZED ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF AN AMERICAN CITY, BY ALEXIS MADRIGAL
Madrigal lays bare the history of a city that’s shockingly underrepresented in stories of Silicon Valley success, revealing how much of tech power and growth depends on Oakland. Marred by systemic racism but invigorated by its strong legacy of activism and community building, Oakland has a specific place in the explosion of wealth in the Bay Area, one that is more complicated than that of many of its neighbors. At the heart of Madrigal’s book, which covers landscapes both local and global, are personal stories and connections that tie its threads together. MCD, March 18
PIECES YOU’LL NEVER GET BACK: A MEMOIR OF UNLIKELY SURVIVAL, BY SAMINA ALI
How can you write a memoir about something you can’t remember? This is the question at the heart of Ali’s latest book, which recounts the traumatic near-death experience she suffered owing to HELLP syndrome during her son’s birth—the multiday coma and extensive brain damage from strokes that erased her memory of her husband and childbirth, as well as her ability to walk, talk, and write, other than her native Urdu—and the seven-year process of recovery that followed. Ali elegantly retraces this story, interspersing it with reflections on her Muslim faith; her upbringing between Hyderabad, India, and Minnesota; and her identities as a writer and a mother. Catapult, March 4
PRIMORDIAL, BY MAI DER VANG
Following a difficult pregnancy, Fresno poet Vang found herself attracted to the saola, a critically endangered animal that looks somewhere between an antelope and a wild cow that can be found in Laos and Vietnam. Vang draws poignant associations between the precarity faced by a creature on the verge of extinction and the plight of Hmong refugees seeking safety and identity. The result is an intimate collection that meditates on climate and survival both in the outdoor world and within the family. Graywolf Press, March 4
SACRAMENTO NOIR, EDITED BY JOHN FREEMAN
California’s capital has been home to the gold rush, Joan Didion, and critical agriculture resources for the state. Today, one of its greatest exports is writers. Here, California Book Club host Freeman, who grew up in Sacramento, gathers tales that reveal the shadows and street corners of the city, paying special attention to specific locations and the diversity of literary lives. The collection features new stories by William T. Vollmann, prior CBC author Reyna Grande, Alta contributor José Vadi, Jamil Jan Kochai, and more. Akashic Books, March 4
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.
