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Spring is on its way, a perfect opportunity to refresh your bookshelves. If you are looking for new books to add to your stack(s), March's must-reads include a double-helping of nostalgic prequels and a return to fiction by the acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
'Dream Count' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
After more than a decade, the author of "Americanah" returns to fiction, and her latest "feels like a homecoming," said The Associated Press. "Dream Count" follows the stories of four women navigating life during the pandemic. Living between Washington, D.C., and Nigeria, the four women grapple with their personal lives as they seek stability. The Nigerian author's return to long-form fiction "reminds us of the sharp wisdom and sturdy empathy that have made her one of the most celebrated voices in fiction." Her new book succeeds because "every page is suffused with empathy," and "Adichie's voice is as forthright and clarifying as ever." (March 4, $29, Amazon, $32, Knopf)
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'Stag Dance' by Torrey Peters
Bestselling author Torrey Peters presents a "provocative collection" of three short stories and a novella that "explore what happens when people are forced to hide their gender and sexual identities," Time said. The four works are highly anticipated follow-ups to Peters' critically acclaimed 2021 debut novel "Detransition, Baby." The titular novella tells the story of a group of lumberjacks who plan a dance, leading some of them to volunteer to dance as women. The "series of explosive scenarios" that Peters presents in these four works "explore the complexities of queerness and trans life," said The New York Times. (March 11, $26, Amazon; $28, Random House)
'Sunrise on the Reaping' by Suzanne Collins
Fans of the popular "Hunger Games" series can look forward to a fifth book, which will be a prequel like the last one, "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes." In her latest book, Suzanne Collins goes back in time to focus on a young Haymitch Abernathy of District 12 as he faces the fiftieth Hunger Games.
The newest book takes readers back to the games that would shape the man who would eventually become Katniss Everdeen's alcohol-dependent mentor. A movie adaptation is already in the works and set to release in late 2026. (March 18, $20, Amazon, $28, Scholastic)
'Elphie' By Gregory Maguire
Speaking of prequels, Gregory Maguire gave us the book that inspired the "Wicked" musical about the college life of the green girl who would become the Wicked Witch of the West. Now, he returns to the land of Oz with another prequel that takes readers back to Elphaba's childhood as "the elder daughter of a fanatical father and a self-involved mother, prone to jealousy but full of hope," said the Times. Tracing Elphie's path from a young child to a student at Shiz University, Maguire "enchants with his whimsical narrative voice and the detailed wonders of the world he's spent so many years playing in," said Publishers Weekly. (March 25, $21, Amazon, $15, William Morrow)
'There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America' by Brian Goldstone
Atlanta journalist Brian Goldstone explores the lives of the "working homeless," a reality all too common in America. The book follows "five local families through stints of couch-surfing, car-living and squalid extended-stay hotels, all while the adults struggle to hold down jobs," said the Times. Their stories are heart-wrenching evidence that no city exists where a "full-time worker earning the local minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment," Goldstone said. (March 25, $30, Amazon, $30, Crown)
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