Here’s the lowdown on LeBron James’ new picture book for children and some of the other latest must-read new books.
LeBron James’ “I Promise.”
Harper Collins
‘I Promise’ by LeBron James
Harper Collins, children’s picture book, $19.99
What it’s about: If you want to get a kid to pay attention to a book filled with messages about doing the right thing and helping make a better future for yourself and the world, it couldn’t hurt to have that message come from LeBron James. The all-time NBA great is the narrator here, painting an inspiring picture of how the promises we make to ourselves help guide us to become better, more successful people.
The buzz: An NPR reviewer wrote that, though it’s rare for a message book to be a hit with her kids, “once in a while . . . one hits with them. LeBron James has written such a book.” Kirkus Reviews says: “He provides young readers with foundational self-esteem encouragement layered within basketball descriptions.”
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, fiction, $26
What it’s about: A young Black woman trying to make her way as an artist becomes infatuated with an older, white married man in an open marriage and becomes messily entangled in his family life.
The buzz: “Raven Leilani’s first novel reads like summer; sentences like ice that crackle or melt into a langurous drip; plot suddenly, wildly flying forward like a bike down a hill,” The New York Times writes.
‘Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots’ by Morgan Jerkins
Harper, nonfiction, $27.99
What it’s about: In this personal exploration of the Great Migration, in which 6 million Black Americans left the South between 1916 and 1970 in search of jobs and a better life, Jerkins recreates her ancestors’ journeys across the country.
The buzz: “Jerkins weaves a vivid and painful backstory of Black people forced into enslavement in the American South,” USA Today says. “The book is filled with poignant examples from across multiple centuries, including those retold in classrooms and those relegated to forgotten parts of our country’s consciousness.”
‘The Smallest Lights in the Universe’ by Sara Seager
Crown, nonfiction, $28
What it’s about: After the unexpected death of her husband, an MIT astrophysicist looks to the stars for solace and inside herself for answers in this moving memoir.
The buzz: “A singular scientist has written a singular account of her life and work,” Kirkus Reviews writes.
‘Superman’s Not Coming’ by Erin Brockovich
Pantheon, nonfiction, $28.95
What it’s about: In a book subtitled “Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It,” the well-known environmental activist and consumer advocate (you might know her from the Julia Roberts film) writes about imminent threats to our most precious natural resource and how we can protect it.
The buzz: “A convincing call to arms about the global water crisis from a sharp, plainspoken activist,” Kirkus Reviews writes.
Click for an excerpt from T. Jefferson Parker’s “Then She Vanished.”
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
‘Then She Vanished’ by T. Jefferson Parker
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, nonfiction, $27
What it’s about: Private eye Roland Ford takes a job for a fellow Marine and a rising politician with a lot of enemies whose wife goes missing.
The buzz: “With each new book in T. Jefferson Parker’s series featuring San Diego private detective Roland Ford, the less the yarns resemble private eye novels and the more they bring to mind apocalyptic James Bond thrillers,” The Associated Press says.
Princeton Architectural Press
‘The Story of Gardening’ by Penelope Hobhouse and Ambra Edwards
Princeton Architectural Press, nonfiction, $60
What it’s about: This updated and lavishly illustrated history of gardening shows how different cultures have approached layout and plantings, from Islamic walled gardens to the formalism of French royalty to the more naturalistic English cottage gardens to pared-down Japanese gardens to the American idea of the front as an attempt to democratize the landscape, with a new chapter that touches on grasses and perennials and focuses on sustainability and ecology.
The buzz: “The authors show gardening to be an age-old struggle to appreciate and amplify nature’s beauty while also imposing order on it,” The Associated Press says.
