9 Books to Read (or Gift!) This February

Guggenheim fellow Christopher Castellani interweaves fact and fiction in a sweeping tale that follows playwright Tennessee Williams's boyfriend of 15 years, Frank Merlo. 

Snowden Wright's novel introduces us to multiple generations of the cola empire's preeminent Southern family, The Forsters (along with the decades of baggage they've all accrued). 

Time travel tends to be a man's game, but Kate Mascarenhas's debut novel breaks the mold (and the time-space continuum), exploring how a team of female scientists's contributions to the first-ever time machine changes the future fifty years later. 

In the second of Annie England Noble's Cold River novels, three estranged sisters, each named by their Hemingway-obsessed mother after one of the writer's wives, are forced to salvage their bond as they piece together the mysteries of their collective past. 

Longtime journalist Anissa Gray's buzzy debut novel follows three adult sisters and the role reversal that ensues when the eldest among them is arrested. 

Yiyun Li, who lost her own child to suicide in 2017, composes a novel of imagined conversations between the narrator and her deceased son. 

Confessions of a Shopaholic author Sophia Kinsella's latest is as sure to spark joy as it is to find a piece of yourself in plucky heroine Fixie Farr — if not, I'll owe you one. 

Historical fiction doyenne Alyson Richman makes her foray into the contemporary with a riveting tale that explores the bond between an isolated student and his connection to the outside world: his tutor. 

The sophomore novel from best-selling author Tara Conklin delivers a century-spanning tale of family and forgiveness.