10 books to add to your reading list in February 2023

critic Bethany Patrick recommends 10 promising titles, fiction and non-fiction to consider for your February reading list.

Whether February chills your bones or feels like a breeze, many of the books on this month’s list will warm your heart. They include a tribute to a deep friendship, a gritty old tale reimagined by a modern stylist, and the spicy tale of a Silicon Valley town that changed the world. Also new work by Salman Rushdie. Happy reading.

FICTION

A magic of good things
By Ayobami Adebayo
Button: 352 pages, $28
(February 7th)

Eniola and Wuraola come from different classes in Nigeria, and in this dynamic second novel by Adebayo we see how socioeconomic stratification, exacerbated by gender inequality, can destroy lives at all levels. Regardless, these layers are all interdependent and inherently interconnected—a paradox that leads here to a shocking, violent act of no return.

skull water
By Heinz Insu Fenkl
Mirror & Gray: 384 pages, $28
(February 7th)

In a quiet, deep, semi-autobiographical novel, Fenkl introduces us to Insu, the son of a Korean mother and a German father who lives outside of a US military base. Along with his “half and half” friends, Insu leads a useless life until he learns that water collected in a human skull can be a miracle cure. As he embarks on a quest to heal his ailing great uncle, Insu discovers just how big the world beyond his borders really is.

victory city
By Salman Rushdie
Random House: 352 pages, $30
(February 7th)

As Rushdie continues to recover from last year’s brutal onslaught, his new novel draws on its roots in exuberant magical realism and reminds us why his writing matters and endures. The plot concerns Pampa Kampana, which becomes an immortal ship and founder of a great city in the 14th century. For hundreds of years, Pampa has witnessed empire and independence, but her epic poem is creation that stands the test of time.

cold people
By Tom Rob Smith
Scribner: 368 pages, $29
(February 7th)

The author of the acclaimed thriller Child 44 works a lot as a screenwriter – a skill that bolsters his latest novel, as Antarctica isn’t always easy to visualize. This is where the last humans immigrated after an alien invasion. We meet a couple named Liza and Atto as they watch a program involving people who have been genetically engineered to withstand cold temperatures. Chilling in so many ways.

The wife of Willesden
By Zadie Smith
penguin: 208 pages, $17
(14th of February)

Does a piece belong on such a list? When Zadie Smith translates Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath” into a 21st-century fairy tale told in a London pub by a middle-aged Jamaican-born British woman, the answer is a stone-cold yes. Smith’s intersectional feminist take, starring a woman named Alvita, has thoroughly modern concerns. But the new playwright is a veteran at adapting classics into contemporary novels. She even uses her predecessor’s rhyming couplets in a collaboration that sings with humanity.

nonfiction

Saying the Right Thing: How to Talk About Diversity, Identity and Justice
By Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow
Atria: 240 pages, $28
(February 7th)

The co-founders of New York University’s Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Yoshino and Glasgow, offer allies (and would-be allies) a practical and compassionate guide to starting and maintaining important conversations without creating discomfort and misunderstandings. As they discuss terms and language, the authors go further and explain how to encourage civil conversation and apologize for the mess.

Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World
By Malcolm Harris
Little, Brown: 720 pages, $36
(14th of February)

“Palo Alto is beautiful,” writes Harris, who grew up in Silicon Valley and uses his personal history to get as deep into the place as the roots of his eponymous “tall tree.” The author looks at capitalism and the world because Northern California transformed both, but keeps the city itself in mind as a microcosm and occasional epicenter of American ideas, for better or for worse. The result is, no surprise, captivating and unsettling.

The climate book: the facts and the solutions
From Greta Thunberg and others
Penguin Press: 464 pages, $30
(14th of February)

The world’s most famous climate activist, only 20 years old, proves in her second book (after “No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference”) that her urgent commitment has not waned. This time she collects essays from 100 prominent people including scientists, novelists and journalists – Kate Marvel! Tim Berners-Lee! Margaret Atwood! — Providing ballast and expertise for a cause that drives them forward with passion and steadfastness.

Wolfish: Wolf, Self and the stories we tell about fear
By Erica Berry
Flatiron Books: 432 pages, $30
(21st of February)

Berry’s startling exploration of how our views of wolves (especially Oregon’s horrific OR7) influence our views of women, power and vulnerability is astounding in scope, spanning everything from fairy tales to domestic violence. As an award-winning journalist, Berry never lets anyone off the hook – human, beast, or woman. What are we afraid of, when and why? This book should be required reading.

We Shouldn’t Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship
By Will Schwalbe
Button: 336 pages, $29
(21st of February)

Schwalbe (“The End of Your Life Book Club”) has an uncanny ability to use his personal experiences as a springboard to universal truths. Here he tells the story of his longtime friendship with his college pal Chris Maxey, who, as an aspiring (and ultimately successful) Navy SEAL, seemed like an unlikely sidekick for the leaner, quirkier, and more cerebral Schwalbe. This memoir will convince you to pick up the phone and check on that old friend you always think of.