April Preview

I guess the big news for bloggers this past week was that Amazon bought the social media/book review site Goodreads, which depending upon how you look at it could be bad or good. I use Goodreads a bit infrequently but liked that it was an independent entity and source for recommendations. Now that it’s owned by the conglomerate Amazon, which owns LibraryThing and Shelfari too, I can’t help but think there’s a wee conflict of interest at hand, which I find troubling. Amazon now is capable of publishing books, selling them and reviewing them. It can target you based on your reviews or spotlight what it wants sold. It owns much of its competition and dominates the industry. Do you see any of this as troubling, or do you feel it’ll be beneficial?

Meanwhile, spring has sprung in many areas, and new releases are raining down in April. Quite a few notable authors are included on the book list at the right.

I’ve picked about five April releases that I think seem good. First, there’s Kate Atkinson’s much acclaimed new one, “Life After Life,” which appears to be an interesting departure from her Jackson Brodie books, and is about the successive lives of Ursula Todd.

Then there’s Meg Wolitzer’s latest, “The Interestings,” which follows a group of artsy friends from their teenage years through to adulthood. It’s been touted by the likes of Jeffrey Eugenides among others.

Not to be overlooked is Claire Messud’s new novel “The Woman Upstairs” which Daphne Merkin calls a “psychological suspense story of the highest sort” and “the first truly feminist … novel I have read in ages.”

Another intriguing one perhaps is “The Flamethrowers” by Rachel Kushner, which is the story of a young artist and the elite and underground worlds she encounters in New York and Rome during the mid-1970s. Booklist calls it a ” propulsively dramatic tale of creativity and destruction.”

Lastly is a debut novel called “Dear Lucy” by Julie Sarkissian that has garnered a lot of positive praise for creating an unforgettable new heroine with an original voice that lingers apparently long after the book’s final pages.

So check these out, along with the new books by veterans James Salter and Isabel Allende.

Meanwhile, in April movie releases (see the list at the left), I will go ahead and pick the Matthew McConaughey film “Mud,” which competed for the Palme d’Or award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. I’m not usually a big McConaughey fan, but this one about a fugitive on the run looks pretty decent and received warm praise apparently at the festival. I’m a bit curious, too, about the film “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” about an ambitious Pakistani man in America post 9/11. Mira Nair, the same director who did “The Namesake” also directed this one.

Lastly, there’s a lot of strong album releases in April (see the list at the bottom right), but perhaps I’m most interested in singer/songwriter Kim Richey’s new one called “Thorn in My Heart.” She’s a bit of a country artist who possesses a heavenly voice. I’ll be eager to check out her latest “Thorn.”

These are just some of my picks this month. Which April releases are you most looking forward to?