Good news: This year’s Tucson Festival of Books is only three weeks away.
Even better news: There is still time to read a bestselling book and then meet the author March 15-16 at the University of Arizona.
More than 300 authors will take part in more than 300 sessions over the two days, and if you are looking for a good book and a new favorite author? Here are some suggestions from the team of volunteers who recruited them to this year’s festival:
“Orbital” and author Samantha Harvey won the 2024 Booker Prize for novels published in Great Britain. The book has no plot. Instead, it is an out-of-this-world collection of facts, figures, sights, sounds and reflections by Harvey and the six crew members onboard. – Thea Chalow
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“Soldiers and Kings” by Jason De León won the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction. It is an intense, up-close-and-personal visit with immigrants hoping to reach America and the smugglers who are working to get them here. Before writing the book, De León spent seven years embedded with a group of human coyotes in Mexico. — Bill Finley
“Chooch Helped,” written by Andrea Rogers and illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz, won the American Library Association’s Caldecott Medal for children’s literature last month. It is a gorgeous picture book featuring a Cherokee girl teaching her younger sister their family traditions. — Kathy Short
“One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” is Omar El Akkad’s farewell letter to the myth of the American Dream. Himself an immigrant, El Akkad once believed America was a place of freedom and justice for all. Now 20 years into a career as an award-winning journalist and author, he thinks there will always be groups that America considers less than human … not “us” but “them.” — Maria Parham
“Transient and Strange” by NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce is a collection of smart, personal essays that explore places where science directly touches our lives — where science has touched her life. It is a surprisingly open memoir, a study of the world around us and the worlds within us. — Jennifer Casteix
“They Call You Back” finds author Tim Z. Hernandez resuming his search for the families of 28 farm workers who were killed in a 1948 plane crash in Central California. While looking for them, Hernandez found someone else. He found himself, and his ancestral past. — Pamela Treadwell-Rubin
"This Great Hemisphere" by Mateo Askaripour is a dystopian sci-fi political thriller, all rolled into one. The story explores how far we’ll go to protect the people we love. Bring your imagination. In 2529, half of all humans will be born invisible. — Meg Files
“More or Less Maddy” by Lisa Genova is a riveting, empathetic examination of a young woman’s struggles to understand and accept a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Genova has been a bestseller since self-publishing “Still Alice,” a heart-breaking look at dementia, in 2007. It became an Oscar-winning movie starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart. — Bill Viner
“Anywhere You Run” by Wanda Morris follows two Black sisters who find themselves on the run during the Jim Crow era in the South. As if that’s not enough, there is a man tracking them who has motives of his own. — Tricia Clapp
“Tiny Threads” by Lilliam Rivera is the story of a young fashion designer who lands her dream job in ever-trendy Southern California. As an important fashion show draws near, the pressures build. Soon, Samara is hearing voices in the night. She begins having visions that seem otherworldly. What’s happening here? – Jody Hardy
“Heartbreak is the National Anthem” by longtime Rolling Stone reporter Rob Sheffield is a behind-the-scenes study of pop superstar Taylor Swift. Who is she, really? Why has her music touched so many people so deeply? As famous as she is, Swift is still, in many ways, a mystery. – Lynn Wiese Sneyd
“A Gentleman’s Gentleman” by TJ Alexander is a historical romance novel that features Lord Christopher Eden, a shy and eccentric loner who learns he must marry — and soon — if he is to keep his late father’s land and fortune. — Jessica Pryde
“Life After Dead Pool” by Zak Podmore was among the books honored by the Pima County Public Library as a Southwest Book of the Year for 2024. Podmore is a journalist and writer who specializes in water and conservation issues. Here, he examines how climate change and design flaws in the Glen Canyon Dam have combined to drain Lake Powell. — Margie Trujillo-Farmer
“Walk in the Park” by Kevin Fedarko can best be described by its subtitle: “The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon." For reasons they came to regret, Fedarko and National Geographic photographer Pete McBride decided to hike the length of the Grand Canyon. It did not always go well. — Thea Chalow
