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CBS News
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
The Book Report: Washington Post critic Ron Charles (March 9)
By Washington Post book critic Ron Charles With spring just around the corner, it's time for a new crop of fresh books: Eric Puchner's "Dream State" is one of those big family novels you just want to fall into. It starts, very charmingly, with the planning for a wedding at a summer house in Montana. Cece is about to marry Charlie, but then Charlie's best friend shows up, and their plans veer off in ways nobody expects. With humor and heartbreak, this sweeping saga explores the way choices – big and small – shape lives and families for decades. Fans of "Americanah," rejoice! Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Dream Count" (Knopf) marks her long-awaited return to fiction. It's an intricately woven novel that spans continents and classes. Following four Nigerian women in North America and Africa – a travel writer, a lawyer, a banker and a maid – Adichie explores love, ambition, family expectations, and the forces that shape women's choices. With her signature wit and insight, she examines privilege and power, intimacy and betrayal, and the weight of history, delivering a story as thought-provoking as it is moving. The history of the Dust Bowl in Nebraska gets swept up in a magical new novel by Karen Russell, called "The Antidote" (Knopf). At the center of the story is a woman known as a prairie witch, who stores memories that people don't want to carry any more. And with farms going bankrupt and a string of murders terrifying the town, there are lots of things these folks don't want to remember. A whole bunch of unforgettable characters swirl through these pages, including a lucky Polish farmer, a teenage basketball star, and a photographer whose time-traveling camera reveals more than some folks want to see. The weather is finally getting warmer, the ground is about to thaw, and Martha Stewart is here to get you ready with her biggest gardening book in more than 30 years. "Martha Stewart's Gardening Handbook: The Essential Guide to Designing, Planting, and Growing" (Harvest) offers her expertise to gardeners of all levels. Packed with advice about plant care, year-round maintenance and planning, this guide to trees, shrubs, specialty gardens and vegetables is filled with color photos to inspire you, even if you don't get off your sofa or pick up a shovel. "Martha Stewart's Gardening Handbook: The Essential Guide to Designing, Planting, and Growing" (Harvest), in Hardcover and eBook formats, available March 18 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and That's it for the Book Report. For these and other suggestions about what to read this spring, talk with your local bookseller or librarian. I'm Ron Charles. Until next time, read on! For more info: Produced by Lucie Kirk. Editor: Chad Cardin. For more reading recommendations, check out these previous Book Report features from Ron Charles: The Book Report (January 26) The best books of 2024 The Book Report (October 13) The Book Report (July 14) The Book Report (June 2) The Book Report (April 28) The Book Report (March 17) The Book Report (February 18) Ron Charles' favorite novels of 2023 The Book Report (October 22) The Book Report (September 17) The Book Report (August 6) The Book Report (June 4) The Book Report (April 30) The Book Report (March 19) The Book Report (February 12, 2023) The Book Report: Ron Charles' favorite novels of 2022 The Book Report (November 13) The Book Report (Sept. 18) The Book Report (July 10) The Book Report (April 17) The Book Report (March 13) The Book Report (February 6, 2022) The Book Report (November 28) The Book Report (September 26) The Book Report (August 1) The Book Report (June 6) The Book Report (May 9) The Book Report (March 28) The Book Report (February 28) The Book Report (January 31, 2021)
CBS News
26-01-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
The Book Report: Washington Post critic Ron Charles (January 26)
By Washington Post book critic Ron Charles The year is already off to a great start: Adam Ross's terrific new novel, "Playworld," is dipped in nostalgia and flecked with love and sorrow. It's 1980 in New York: Griffin Hurt is a successful teenage actor who just wants to pass his classes, excel on the wrestling team and date a pretty girl, but instead he's got to deal with fame, his parents' ambitions, predatory adults, and his own yearning for authenticity. Drawing on his experiences as a child actor, Ross blends a child's innocence with a man's wry reflection to produce a big, irresistible story. As you forage through this winter's new books, you are not likely to find a more charming novel than "Tartufo." Kira Jane Buxton's story about truffle-mania whisks us away to Italy and serves up one buttery page of comedy after another. At the start, a little Tuscan village is dying, and the new mayor is desperate to attract tourists. As luck would have it, in a nearby forest, a truffle-hunter and his dogs are about to discover the largest truffle in the world. It's a miracle that could bring untold riches and worldwide attention – or unimaginable disaster! Tired of winter? In Alafair Burke's new thriller "The Note," three women who've been friends for years gather for a sun-filled vacation in the Hamptons. One night, on their way to dinner, a couple in a white sedan cuts them off and steals their parking space. Incensed, one of the women leaves a damning note on his windshield. It's just a prank, after all. But the next day, the driver goes missing ... and these three friends get caught up in an investigation that could uncover all manner of deadly secrets. Next month, Bill Gates, the legendary co-founder of Microsoft, will publish his first memoir. In "Source Code: My Beginnings," Gates reportedly looks back at his childhood, his awkward adolescence, and the experiences that led him to the then-burgeoning world of computers. This is a memoir that promises to reveal the formative life of one of the most revolutionary figures alive – a man whose products changed the way we work, and whose philanthropy is now racing to save the world. That's it for the Book Report. For these and other suggestions about what to read this winter, talk with your local bookseller or librarian I'm Ron Charles. Until next time, read on! For more info: Produced by Robin Sanders and Cameron Jimenez. Editor: Libby Fabricatore. For more reading recommendations, check out these previous Book Report features from Ron Charles: The best books of 2024 The Book Report (October 13) The Book Report (July 14) The Book Report (June 2) The Book Report (April 28) The Book Report (March 17) The Book Report (February 18) Ron Charles' favorite novels of 2023 The Book Report (October 22) The Book Report (September 17) The Book Report (August 6) The Book Report (June 4) The Book Report (April 30) The Book Report (March 19) The Book Report (February 12, 2023) The Book Report: Ron Charles' favorite novels of 2022 The Book Report (November 13) The Book Report (Sept. 18) The Book Report (July 10) The Book Report (April 17) The Book Report (March 13) The Book Report (February 6, 2022) The Book Report (November 28) The Book Report (September 26) The Book Report (August 1) The Book Report (June 6) The Book Report (May 9) The Book Report (March 28) The Book Report (February 28) The Book Report (January 31, 2021)
