Suggested Reads for April 2026

Name: Nichole's Recommendation: Exquisite Corpse
Item: Exquisite Corpse
Author: Nichole

Millstadt Library
Apr 20
8 min read

Looking for some book inspiration? Here are some suggested reads for April!

These books have been on the New York Times Bestseller List and at the top of the Millstadt Library's most circulated list. At the end of these lists, Nichole picks a book or two that she personally recommends.

We just reviewed Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult and are reading The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Clark for our next Senior Center Book Club meeting on Monday, May 18 at 11 a.m.

Without further ado, here are this month's picks!

Ghosts of Sicily: The True Story of the Naval Intelligence Agents Who Courted the Mob to Fight Nazis in America and the Battlefields of Italy by Mark Harmon

It's 1942, and New York City is at war. German U-boats are sinking ships just miles offshore and Washington DC is convinced that waterfront spies are providing intelligence targeting the ships. To thwart the threat, the Office of Naval Intelligence reaches out to those with the most sway along the waterfronts of Brooklyn and Manhattan – the mob. The result will be one of the most successful and controversial operations in NCIS’ long history (before it was even called NCIS.)

The Navy’s alliance with Charles “Lucky” Luciano and his organization will send New Yorker Tony Marsloe and his fellow ONI officers on an international odyssey that includes conducting secret meetings with legendary criminals, hunting clandestine spy rings operating on U.S. soil, and conducting daring undercover missions behind the bloody frontlines of the invasion of Italy.

Alongside towering historic figures like Meyer Lansky and Gen. George Patton, readers will encounter a kaleidoscope of agents and gangsters who not only shaped the war in Italy but the future of international crime itself.

Genres: History | Nonfiction | World War II | Espionage

304 pages, Hardcover | First published April 14, 2026

Bluebird Gold by Devney Perry

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Devney Perry comes a gripping romance set in 1983 where a woman’s search for the truth about her father’s death entangles her with the small-town sheriff and a legend of lost Montana gold.

Living in Dalton, Montana was not what I had planned for this winter. But after my father’s sudden death, I uprooted my life to move into his tiny, lakeside cabin and settle his estate. My friends tell me to sell his place and move on. But this winter is my chance to say goodbye. To remember a man who’d loved tales of Montana lore.

Taking a temporary teaching job seemed like the perfect way to keep myself busy on lonely days. Cleaning out the cabin should have been simple. Except the more I learn about my father’s life, the more questions I have about his death.

The last thing I need is a crush on Sheriff Cosi Raynes. Not only is his son my student, but his life is rooted in Montana, while mine is headed . . . anywhere else.

Yet as I uncover a trail of strange clues Dad left behind about a lost legend of Montana gold, staying away from Cosi is not an option. Neither is denying the attraction between us. And my winter of healing becomes a race for answers.

I came to Montana to bury the past. Now I’m falling for the man who might just be my future. And either I’ll solve this mystery. Or the person in Dalton determined to hide the truth will make sure I die trying.

316 pages, Kindle Edition | First published December 30, 2025

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.

400 pages, Hardcover | First published April 7, 2026

Hope Rises by David Baldacci

Walter Nash began a journey down a dark path of seemingly no return, and now he finds himself questioning everything that got him there in this thrilling sequel to Nash Falls from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.

Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him. He has nothing left to lose and with long, rigorous training under his belt the gentle and sensitive Nash has transformed into something he never thought he’d be: a physically imposing man with lethal skills. And now he has only goal left in life: taking down Victoria Steers.

In order to succeed, he’s going to need to cross enemy lines and work the job from the inside. But Steers is shrewd and only brings those with her complete trust into her inner circle. Nash must rely on every ounce of his hard-earned skills in order to prove himself an ally to Steers if he’s ever going to get close enough to decimate her criminal empire.

Yet, despite hating the woman for destroying his life, Nash finds himself oddly drawn to Steers in ways that he never could’ve imagined. And what he ultimately discovers will turn all he believed upside down, forcing Nash to do something truly unfathomable. So, will the truth set Nash free?

432 pages, Hardcover | Published April 14, 2026

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

The multimillion-copy-selling author of The Help returns with a bold, big-hearted novel about a group of unbreakable women, fighting for what’s rightfully theirs—and the power of friendship to change everything.

“A must-read.”—Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

Oxford, Mississippi, 1933.

Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable "big girls" at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed.

Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she's left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister's seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies.

Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates—and Meg's—converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan to claim what's rightfully theirs. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women's freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences.

The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—an epic testament to underestimated women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious—the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.

656 pages, Hardcover | Expected publication May 5, 2026

The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke

A DEBUT MYSTERY FROM EVELYN CLARKE, THE CREATION OF CAT CLARKE AND V.E. SCHWAB

Six authors. One private island. Seventy-two hours to write the ending that will change their lives.

Arthur Fletch, one of the world’s bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead . . . and his last book is unfinished.

Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch’s agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter––for a mind-boggling sum––they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch’s magnum opus.

It’s the perfect plot. All it needs is a killer ending.

343 pages, Hardcover | First published April 7, 2026

NICHOLE'S RECOMMENDATION

Warning, this book is not for the faint of heart. Exquisite Corpse is a true definition of the genre Splatterpunk - a term coined in the 80's for horror novels that go a little too far.

There definitely were some moments in the book where I thought, "They're not going to actually do that, are they?" And they most definitely did. Besides that, the talk of New Orleans and the characters gave an oddly Anne Rice feel which made the book interesting and a little supernatural. What surprised me the most, is the overarching love story between the two sadistic serial killers that really made you root for them and not their victims.

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

To serial slayer Andrew Compton, murder is an art, the most intimate art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the sole ambition of bringing his "art" to new heights.

Tortured by his own perverse desires, and drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his "art" to limits even Compton hadn't previously imagined. Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese-American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim.

Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London's Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of the New Orleans French Quarter, and punctuated by rants from radio talk show host Lush Rimbaud, a.k.a. Luke Ransom, Tran's ex-lover, who is dying of AIDS and who intends to wreak ultimate havoc before leaving this world, Exquisite Corpse unfolds into a labyrinth of murder and love. Ultimately all four characters converge on a singular bloody night after which their lives will be irrevocably changed — or terminated.

Poppy Z. Brite dissects the landscape of torture and invites us into the mind of a killer. Exquisite Corpse confirms Brite as a writer who defies categorization. It is a novel for those who dare trespass where the sacred and profane become one.

240 pages, Paperback | First published January 1, 1996

*all descriptions of the novels and the book covers are from GoodReads.com

Suggested Reads for April 2026

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