Does a book seem small in influence compared to the monstrous forces of mean-spirited avarice that shadow our public life today? Sure. But why do we remember Leo Tolstoy, Walt Whitman, Virginia Woolf, or James Baldwin?

The next Milkweed Books Subscription pick is here! Read on for more about Edward McPherson's The History of the Future, plus other books that explore American myths and misdeeds, boomtowns and Doom Towns.

Today marks the official U.S. publication of Tim Winton's acclaimed memoir, Island Home. The author of twenty-eight books for adults and children, Winton is known worldwide as one of Australia's most acclaimed novelists. Island Home offers readers a more intimate view of Winton's relationship to his home—to the sea, scrub, and swamp as vital to him as the blood relations of family.

Like all of us at Milkweed Books, I like to read across genres, but I have a soft spot for books that are themselves cross-genre, and particularly those that mess up the lines delineating what is and isn’t fiction. The following selections are a few such titles I’ve loved. One I received at a party, one I bought on a whim at another independent bookstore (shout-out to Subtext Books, my neighborhood store), and another I read after seeing it in the social media feeds of a few other trusted bookstores and booksellers. I wouldn’t normally include two books from the same press, but The Gift comes out in early May and I want everyone to read it right away, so Coffee House gets two this time.