Need a delightful volume of short stories? Or some background lore on your favorite (well, my favorite) baseball movie? Or a snappy heist for a sunny afternoon? These titles, and more, are part of this month's crop of brand-new paperbacks, all highly recommended. Happy reading!
"Counterfeit" by Kirstin Chen (William Morrow, $18.99). Should you be in need of a beach read, here's a great choice: Chen's novel, a New York Times bestseller last year, follows Ava Wong, a Stanford graduate and frustrated stay-at-home mom who gets drawn into the seductive (and lucrative) world of fake designer handbags. Kirkus Reviews called it "clever, sharp, and slyly funny ... a delightfully different caper novel with a 'Gone Girl' — style plot twist."
"You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty" by Akwaeke Emezi (Atria, $17). This New York Times Notable Book of 2022, from the author of "Freshwater" and the bestselling "The Death of Vivek Oji," is about a young widow who is surprised by the return of love and passion to her life. NYT reviewer R.O. Kwon called it "an unabashed ode to living with, and despite, pain and mortality," adding, "I love this book's understanding of how tightly grief can tangle itself with elation, and how loss might elicit possession."
