I was pleasantly surprised when gathering material for this month’s Sweet Anticipation. February tends to have the reputation as a tedious month, something to be borne between the highs of the holidays and the anticipation of springtime. But the memo apparently didn’t make it to publishers, who are releasing an impressive array of titles across all genres, making who would make the cut to this month’s list a tougher call than usual. On to the selections:
--Wisconsin authors have been busy as of late: February sees the release of several local authors’ works. Eau Claire’s own Nickolas Butler builds on his Shotgun Lovesongs and The Hearts of Men success with The Forty-Year Kiss. Featuring exes reconnecting after the titular forty years, it sounds like a perfect bittersweet Valentine’s Day read. Madison’s own Christina Clancy does the sensible thing and gets her characters to Palm Springs during the winter with The Snowbirds. But while the desert paradise offers a fresh start to Kim and Grant, it tests their marriage in ways that may mean only one of the pair will return home to Wisconsin. And Stoughton’s Annelise Ryan adds to her Monster Hunter series with Beast of the North Woods, sending her detective Morgan Carter on the trail of someone—or is it something?-- that killed an ice fisherman near Rhinelander.
--What better way to endure the shortest month of the year than with some short works? Curtis Sittenfeld has made her name with her full-length novels, but she releases her second collection of short stories this month with Show Don’t Tell; it’s out on February 25. Amanda Peters had a hit with 2023’s The Berry Pickers. Her first story collection, Waiting for the Long Night Moon, is out mid-month. And if fiction really isn’t your thing but you still want to keep it short, podcaster/writer/critic and now essayist Ira Madison III takes on pop culture of the 90s to today and his experiences growing up gay and Black in Milwaukee in Pure Innocent Fun. It’s out February 4.
--More good things on the nonfiction front: memoirs from Geraldine Brooks and Bill Gates lead the pack, as well as long-delayed appearance of entertainment icon Josephine Baker’s memoir—a mere fifty years after her death in 1975. That year also marked the appearance of another cultural institution, as detailed in Susan Morrison’s Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live; it’s out February 18. On the current affairs front, novelist and journalist Omar El-Akkad poses a searing take on Western hypocrisy towards the Middle East in general and the plight of the Palestinian people in particular with One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, on shelves by the end of the month. With no shortage of difficult discussions and tense realities in the daily news, activist and co-founder of the National Center for Human Rights Education, Loretta J. Ross offers a roadmap for connection with Calling in: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel, out February 4.
Click on through for the full list of titles. Happy reading!