New Book Releases: April 26, 2022

Each week, I’ll catalog the biggest and most exciting adult and YA fiction — and the occasional nonfiction — coming out that Tuesday.

MARRYING THE KETCHUPS, Jennifer Close. A close-knit Chicago family and proprietors of a popular restaurant must reconsider everything they hold dear when the patriarch of the family dies, the Chicago Cubs win the World Series, and Donald Trump is elected president. “Recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that propulsiveness is a quality that’s hard to explain and harder still to teach — but if Jennifer Close ever felt like running a course on it, I’d sign up,” writes Liz Moore in the New York Times. Aggregated critical reviews, Amazon, Bookshop, Libro.fm.

BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA, Katie Cotugno. After their careers veer dramatically off course, two former child actors with secrets reunite to consider remaking the show they made as kids, falling in love in the process. Amazon, Bookshop, Libro.fm.

SEARCH, Michelle Huneven. A food writer and longtime congregant in the Unitarian Universalist church agrees to help her assembly find a new minister, and secretly writes a memoir, with recipes, about the experience. “I’ve loved every book Michelle Huneven has written and Search is the best — the most delectable — yet,” says Ruth Reichl. Aggregated critical reviews, Amazon, Bookshop, Libro.fm.

KAIKEYI, Vaishnavi Patel. A beautiful, heartbreaking reimagining of the life of Kaikeyi, a villified character in the ancient Sanskrit epic the Ramayana. In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly calls it “mesmerizing… This easily earns its place on shelves alongside Madeline Miller’s Circe.” I wholeheartedly agree. Aggregated critical reviews, Amazon, Bookshop, Libro.fm.