“Like so many members of the Baby Boom generation, I started out as a baby.” —From Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up by Dave Barry (May 13)

This spring brings The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick (April 22), about a group of suburban women in the 1960s whose minds are blown by Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. And in The Busybody Book Club by Freya Sampson (May 27) a motley group of British book lovers tries to suss out a thief and a possible murderer in their midst.

In her revealing memoir, Matriarch (April 22), Tina Knowles, 71, mother of superstar Beyoncé, 43, and singer/actress Solange, 38, describes her Texas girlhood, career as a fashion designer, raising her remarkable family and the wisdom she’s gained through the decades.

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (May 13)
The Alexander Hamilton biographer (inspiration for the Broadway musical) now offers a fascinating 1,200-page portrait of the iconic 19th-century humorist—a complicated, irreverent man who, he writes “had some mysterious anger, some pervasive melancholy” behind his wit. Lin-Manuel Miranda, you up for this one?

The Scientist and the Serial Killer by Lise Olsen (April 1) Olsen—who wrote our 2022 feature about elder murders in Texas—centers this gripping tale on forensic anthropologist Sharon Derrick, who spent years identifying the teenage boys murdered by 1970s serial killer Dean Corll, a.k.a. The Candy Man, finally bringing closure to the victims’ families.

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto (April 1) The 61-year-old teashop owner and amateur sleuth Vera Wong seeks the killer of a high-rolling social media influencer. How? By plying everyone who knew him with questions and home cooking. Like 2023’s Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, it’s a fun mystery with heart. —Christina Ianzito