Spring is almost upon us and for readers, the choices for their TBR (To Be Read) stack are growing dramatically.  Here are some new books that are garnering a great deal of attention and praise that you might want to consider for that ever-growing list.

        

 “Dead Letters” by Caite Dolan-Leach is one of those twisty books that starts out like one type and end up another.  Ava escaped from her home environment, but is called back by the death of her twin sister, Zelda, in a barn fire.  Soon back in a place she never wanted to see again, Ava is slowly convinced that Zelda’s death may have been faked.  Struggling to deal with her family’s ailing vineyard, Ava now has to face secrets in their past to find out what really happened to Zelda.

Both a family saga and a mystery, “Dead Letters” deals with the concept of home on many levels.

           

“Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid follows two young people who fall in love while their country descends into violence and chaos.  They need to leave, but how can they do that.  In “Exit West” the lovers are offered a chance, a magic door, but it means cutting themselves off from everything and everyone, family and friends, heritage and place.  “Exit West’s” magical choice merely heightens the reality that so many people now face.

           

“The Stranger in the Woods” by Michael Finkel is not a novel, but the story seems to be fresh from someone’s imagination.  Christopher Knight drove his car out into the woods, left it there and disappeared.  For more than a quarter of a century, he lived alone with no contact with other humans except for occasionally stealing food and supplies from vacation cabins.  How he did it and why is the subject of this riveting account.

           

Other new books available throughout March that readers might want to consider are:

 

“Eggshells” by Caitriona Lally, “Rabbit Cake” by Annie Hartnett, “The Idiot” by Elif Batuman, “The Bear and the Nightingale” by Katherine Arden, “The Lost City of the Monkey God” by Douglas Preston,

 

“Ill Will” by Dan Chaon, “Almost Missed You” by Jessica Strawser, “The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley” by Hannah Tinti, “Edgar and Lucy” by Victor Lodato and “The Tea Bird of Hummingbird Lane” by Lisa See.