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The Indiana Daily Student

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Weekend Spring Book Preview: Sci-fi sagas, social unrest and seduction

Strange The Dreamer

"Amiable With Big Teeth" — Claude McKay — Feb. 7

McKay, a prominent writer during the Harlem Renaissance, died in 1948 after publishing a quantity of poems, essays and novels about racial inequality and the black community in New York City. An unpublished novel of his was discovered in a Columbia University archive in 2009, authenticated in 2012 and will reach shelves in 2017. “Amiable With Big Teeth” focuses on events, like Benito Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, that prompted political action in Harlem just before World War II.

"Exit West" — Mohsin Hamid — March 7

Hamid, whose previous novels have drawn from political and social unrest, weaves magical realism into a story about love, war and immigration. In a city embroiled in civil war, Nadia and Saeed discover doors that can transport people elsewhere but only for a price.

"Strange the Dreamer" — Laini Taylor — March 28

Those familiar with Taylor’s gorgeously composed “Daughter of Smoke & Bone” trilogy can expect more magic and monsters from her newest novel, “Strange the Dreamer.” When a reticent, orphaned junior librarian is offered the chance to seek a mysterious lost city, he must find the truths hidden between myth and history.

"American War" — Omar El — April 4

In the future, the Second American Civil War begins in 2074  and seeds plague and panic across the United States. Sarat Chestnut, a 6-year-old from Louisiana, is sent with the rest of her family to an internment camp. There she will be remade by the war and people she meets within the camp.

"Borne" — Jeff VanderMeer — April 25

VanderMeer specializes in trippy, experimental science fiction. His latest work follows a discarded biological experiment and his human caretaker, Rachel who must defend the small being from a ruinous city. Will Rachel and Borne discover what he was made for?

"The Secrets of My Life" — Caitlyn Jenner — April 25 

Gender transition can be an intensely private experience. Some people would consider roles on two reality TV shows, not to mention increased attention from news, to be enough exposure.

Caitlyn Jenner might not agree.

Jenner has been relatively far from the public eye since “I am Cait” was canceled, but this memoir will provide more context for her life, from the Olympics to the cover of Variety magazine.

"Into the Water" -—Paula Hawkins — May 2 

All eyes are on Hawkins after her previous novel’s adaption into film. The “Girl on the Train”author returns with another psychological thriller about two women found dead in a river and the disturbances underneath the surface of a quiet town.

"House of Names" — Colm Tóibín — May 9 

“Brooklyn” author Tóibín returns with a retelling of the life of Clytemnestra, a Greek queen who plotted to kill her husband after he returned from the Trojan War. Tóibín draws from myth, but the book hinges on universal concepts like love, betrayal, and vengeance.

"Men Without Women" — Haruki Murakami — May 9 

This renowned realistic fiction author consistently studies and lays out human nature for readers. His new collection of short stories brings the lives and loneliness to bear of men who are, in a word, alone.

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