book club reemerges from hibernation—and what a year of reading we’ve woken up to. Some of our editors kicked the year off by looking back. New biographies and freshly issued retrospectives reexamine the lives and legacies of fashion’s biggest names, from archetypical It girl Jane Birkin to the eternally ahead of his time Issey Miyake. Forgotten titles like Jennifer Dawson’s
saw revival through reprinting, and with more and more publishers unearthing an ever-growing treasure trove of discontinued books, it’s never been a better time to rethink the classics.
But that’s not to say we didn’t dip into the totally new too. Our editors have fallen in love all over again in
, all vicariously, of course. Wherever you might find yourself as the world progressively thaws from a record-breaking
, we hope these immersive reads help you revel in the warmth of spring and its myriad of joys. We’d love to hear what books are keeping you company on those rainy days in and the
—plus which brilliant books we missed on this list—on
If you like to laugh and are seeking respite from such things as detail,
should appeal. I immensely enjoyed reading Madeline Cash’s debut novel, which flies by and takes us inside the dilapidated home of the Flynn family, who themselves are perennially in strife. The parents have just opened their marriage, an unorthodox move especially in their small town, and each of their three daughters are failing to cope in their own unique ways—they are well characterized despite the brevity, which is impressive. I have my critiques if you couldn’t tell, but they should mostly be taken as a compliment: I wish it was longer, as could easily have been done were the world fleshed out from its unfortunate Any Town,
setting. I often felt the characters were moseying around a two-dimensional world as though denizens of
—a show Cash would thrive writing for (again, a compliment, I respect
Like many, my introduction to Issey Miyake was through his garment pleating: clothes that are meditative and utterly practical, clothes for moving and getting through the day. Taschen’s updated release from 2015 offers an encyclopedic look at the driving philosophies behind the designer’s oeuvre, from his start in 1960 as a teenager studying at
’s Tama Art University to his death in 2022. It’s edited by Midora Kitamura, Miyake Design Studio chairman with half a century’s worth of collaborative experience. It also features a series of thoughtfully written essays from Kazuko Koike, founder of Tokyo’s Sagacho Exhibit Space, exploring the designer’s innovative approaches to fabric and the body. With plenty of archival imagery on and off the runway plus illustration from the
is a must-have for any student of fashion and believer in clothes taking the shape of their wearer first.
would raise few eyebrows—at least, in this day and age. But before the Green Mountain State gained its reputation as a well-known—bordering on stereotypical—enclave for the
, there was Charity and Sylvia. Based on the real life historical figures Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, Walden’s graphic novel imagines the shared life of a same-sex couple in early America. Beginning in 1807 and spanning 44 years, the couple’s story is as much about their relationship as it is about seeing America grow through its nascent years. You see infrastructure evolve as the railroads are built, rural Vermont change as community which calls it home grows, and domestic life in 19th-century America for all its tediousness and rewards. The book is carefully rendered in Walden’s expressive and intricately detailed drawing style, a fine medium to convey this for-the-most-part-true love story set in the boondocks of Weybridge, Vermont. —
Before any type of color-branded summer or the YouTube-to-pop star pipeline, there were the compulsively cool women of the 1970s who, quite literally, could not care less. Above them all was Jane Birkin, someone so synonymous with a distinctive, nonchalant
she put Rohmer girls to shame. Meltzer’s biography is a fresh look at the layers behind Jane as an original It girl—the charisma that drew others in, the seemingly effortless curation, her life as a muse, and her singular power. It offers a fresh perspective on the ambiance of 1970s
, a peek into the tempestuous relationships she partook in, and the real human behind an immortalized persona. It’s a book that has developed an It-girl status itself, seen in the hands of high-profile fashion socialites in the
cycle—a nod to the phenomena of the elusive It woman, and a nod to Jane, its ubiquitous founder.
I met and fell in love with my now-husband while I was studying abroad in
, so when this book came across my desk, I put it on hold at my
immediately. A romance novel? Set in the city where my own relationship blossomed? Yeah, I couldn’t put it down. The story follows Dani Dorfman, a 20-something American who moves to the Netherlands after losing her job and boyfriend is one messy month. There, she accidentally rekindles things with her Dutch-exchange-student high school boyfriend, a man she’d experienced all her firsts with but assumed she’d seen for the last time. The result is a page-turner full of will-they-won’t-they anticipation and colorful Amsterdam scenery that brought up all the nostalgia. I already miss it.
has ticked off more than a few milestones in her career. In 2014, she became the first woman in more than two decades to take part in a
Grand Prix weekend. Four years later, she was the only woman team principal in Formula E, the all-electric street racing championship. Now, in 2026, Wolff is managing director of F1 Academy, the all-women series cultivating opportunities for drivers with their sights firmly set on Formula 1.
, traces that ambition-fueled journey—including racing her brother on a 50cc bike in Oban,
, at age six and entering the Kart World Championship at 14 as the only girl in the paddock. Along the way, Wolff recounts the many moments she was singled out as “different” in a male-dominated sport, including being handed a Top Female Award despite missing the podium. “I’ve always said I race for me, because I love racing. I don’t race to prove a point about how well a woman can do against men on the track,” she writes. The book arrives at a pivotal moment for motorsport, as more than 40% of Formula 1’s global fan base comprises young women. “It’s not a man’s world anymore,” Wolff writes, referencing the growing number of women engineers and race strategists in the paddock.
This is a clear-eyed narrative, charting both her victories and setbacks in clean, chronological order, with plenty of momentum to keep the pages turning, even if you’re not a motorsport fan. For F1 fans though, there’s added pleasure in glimpses of familiar figures—her husband, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team principal Toto Wolff and racing icon
is a story about belief and conviction, and by the final page, you’re left with the distinct sense that Wolff’s story is far from complete.
is a collection of short stories for anyone who has ever been dissatisfied with the mundanity of everyday life and dazzled by the dream of fame, just to crash back to Earth with the reality of it. It’s a book you won’t want to put down, thanks to the bizarre multi-dimensional characters, surprisingly risqué scenes that read more peculiar than seductive, or Rende’s ability to capture the feeling that is inside so many of us that, simply put, we’re meant for something more. The collection follows ambitious, impulsive, and somewhat dark personalities whose bare-faced delusions and desires are laid out for the world to pick apart, tapping into that tiny corner of our brains that wants to be adored, obsessed over, and known to all. Rende does an excellent job of balancing ambition and hardship on a knifepoint, crafting compelling narratives you won’t be able to turn away from, whether due to morbid fascination or her bold, witty language. —
For Hana, the persistent ingenue we follow in Mieko Kawakami’s latest novel, it hasn’t been her day, her week, her month, or even her year. Growing up in a cramped Tokyo apartment with her a neglectful mother who works the graveyard hours at a local dive bar, Hana doesn’t live the charmed Tokyoite life promoted in glossy magazines and social media feeds. When she opens a bar named Lemon with her new unofficial guardian Kimiko, Hana’s life is thrown into brutal cycles of ups and downs that beg the question of whether or not we can truly escape where we come from. Kawakami’s prose explores all that is gritty, seedy, and real in this tale of survival, sabotage, and paranoia. You’re thrown into all the uneasy textures of urban Japan’s underbelly in the ‘90s as Kawakami plays along the razor’s edge of how sisterhood can be a salve or the last damning thing that finally breaks your heart. As intense as its themes are, Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio’s translation goes down smoothly, with a skillful subtlety whose full effect might not hit you immediately. If you’re looking for a read that really sticks with you,
Sursă: https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/the-books-our-editors-couldnt-put-down-this-season
