Reading, watching, listening, and gaming recommendations from the staff of the American Writers Museum.
We can’t recommend these books, films, shows, plays, albums, and games highly enough! Check back every month for more entertainment recommendations, from classics that we revisit over and over to new favorites. If you’re looking for your next book or movie or show or whatever, you came to the right place.
Many of our March book recommendations are also available on Bookshop.org, which benefits independent bookstores. We also strongly encourage you to support your local bookstore by visiting them in person or ordering online through them directly.
Let us know what you’ve been into recently in the comments!
Anora by Sean Baker
From Rotten Tomatoes: “Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or [and Academy Award Best Picture] winner Anora is an audacious, thrilling, and comedic variation on a modern day Cinderella story. Mikey Madison [Academy Award Best Actress] captivates as Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn whose life takes an unexpected turn when she meets and impulsively marries Vanya, the impetuous son of a Russian billionaire. However, when Vanya’s parents catch wind of the union, they send their henchmen to annul the marriage, setting off a wild chase through the streets of New York.”
In addition to winning Oscars for Best Picture, directing, and editing, Baker also took home the 2025 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay!
—Nate, Content & Exhibits Manager
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
From the publisher: “In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold…Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?”
—Nate, Content & Exhibits Manager
Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su
From the publisher: “The daughter of a Taiwanese father and white mother, Vi Liu has never quite fit into her Midwestern college town…Vi discovers a strange blob… But the blob is no ordinary pet. Becoming increasingly sentient, it begins to grow, shift shape, and obey Vi’s commands…Vi is struck with a daring idea: she’ll mold the creature into her ideal partner. Feeding it a stream of sweet breakfast cereals and American pop culture, the creature grows into a movie-star handsome white man. But when Vi’s desire to be loved unconditionally threatens to spiral out of control, she is forced to confront her lonely childhood, her aloof ex-boyfriend, and the racial marginalization that has defined her relationships—a journey of self-discovery that teaches her it’s impossible to control those you love.”
—Annie, Education Associate
The Book of Irish American Poetry: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present edited by Daniel Tobin
From the publisher: “What does it mean to be an Irish American poet? The Book of Irish American Poetry answers this question by drawing together the best and most representative poetry by Irish Americans and about Irish America that has been written over the past three hundred years…The poems in this collection cut across the broad spectrum of American poetry and place Irish Americans within every notable school of American poetry, from modernism to confessionalism and the Beats, from formalism to imagism, and from projectivism to the New York School and Language poets.”
I have included this title because I am very much looking forward to this month’s happy hour event: Get Lit: Pub Night. Last year’s event returns due to popular demand to raise a glass to Irish pubs and the many stories told from a barstool. Plus, this book might give you a leg up in the trivia portion of the event, focused on Irish American writers…
—Nate, Content & Exhibits Manager
The Cat from the Kimono by Nancy Peña
From the publisher: “Once upon a time in Japan lived a beautiful young woman. The beloved daughter of a silk mill owner, she was lavished with gorgeous kimonos from across the province, but her favorite was the first one he gave her. It was a deep crimson painted with soft, purring black cats, and was crafted by the finest weaver in the mill. The weaver, besotted with her beauty, professed his love to the maiden. Indifferent to his advances, she preferred the warmth of her feline finery to his, leading him down a dark path that separates the woman from one of her beloved black cats! Thus, the cat begins a fantastic voyage, from the bottom of the sea to the smokey markets of London, sometimes in the company of Sherlock Holmes himself, as he becomes a figure of myth and legend.”
—Matt, Community Engagement Manager
Communion: The Female Search for Love by bell hooks
It’s my birthday month! This year, I’m redefining love in all parts of my life. hooks is also a fellow UC Santa Cruz alum, go Slugs!
More from the publisher: “Intimate, revealing, provocative, Communion challenges every woman to courageously claim the search for love as the heroic journey we must all choose to be truly free. In her trademark commanding and lucid language, hooks explores the ways ideas about women and love were changed by the feminist movement, by women’s full participation in the workforce, and by the culture of self-help, and reveals how women of all ages can bring love into every aspect of their lives, for all the years of their lives. Communion is the heart-to-heart talk every woman—mother, daughter, friend, and lover—needs to have.”
—Tara, Database & Operations Associate
Conclave by Peter Straughan
From Rotten Tomatoes: “Conclave follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events—selecting the new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.”
Another 2025 Academy Award-winner here! Peter Straughan won Best Adapted Screenplay for Conclave, which is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris.
—Nate, Content & Exhibits Manager
The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan
From the publisher: “The Great Lakes—Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior—hold 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work, and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan’s compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.”
—Andrew, Institutional Giving Manager
Division Street: America by Studs Terkel
From the publisher: “When New Press founder André Schiffrin first published Division Street in 1967, Studs Terkel’s reputation as America’s foremost oral historian was established overnight. Approaching Chicagoans as emblematic of the nation at large, Terkel set out with his tape recorder and spent a year talking to over seventy people about race, family, education, work, prospects for the future—all topics that remain deeply contentious today.”
Later this month, we will release an episode of our podcast Nation of Writers about Terkel. I’ll be interviewing journalists Mary Schmich and Bill Healy about Terkel’s legacy and their new podcast Division Street: Revisited, which follows up on the stories of “uncelebrated” people Terkel first covered in his oral history. The episode will air later this month, so be sure to subscribe to our podcasts to be notified when it is available!
—Nate, Content & Exhibits Manager
Dr. Mutter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
A compelling and well-researched story about an innovator in 19th century medicine, founder of the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. This book has everything: Disgusting medical practices! Interpersonal drama! The invention of the skin graft! Exorbitant clothing bills! A guy you hate because of his medical opinions also turning out to be a huge racist! Pair with The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris and/or The Ghost Map by Steven Berlin Johnson for extra 19th century medicine facts.
—Hunter, Storyteller
A Ghost is Born (Expanded Edition) by Wilco
From Nonesuch Records: “A Ghost Is Born was released on June 22, 2004, debuting at No. 8 on the Billboard chart. The album, which Mehr calls ‘an eclectic array of dark ballads, upbeat pop songs, Krautrock chug, noise rock freakouts, and roots rock abandon,’ was widely acclaimed as one of 2004’s best, appearing in year-end lists of Mojo, NPR, NME, the Associated Press, The Wire, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, and Uncut, among many others. The album earned the band its first Grammy, for Best Alternative Music Album. The album also won a Grammy for Best Recording Package. Nonesuch released this expanded edition on February 7, 2025. The 2-CD set comprises the original album, plus a second disc of outtakes and alternates.”
—Annie, Education Associate
I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider
From the publisher: “Celebrate the culture and fanaticism of book lovers with beloved illustrator Grant Snider’s I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf, a full-color graphic novel celebrating books, authors, and reading. With a striking package including a die-cut cover, it’s the perfect addition to any reader’s bookshelf. In this lighthearted collection of one- and two-page comics, writer-artist Grant Snider explores bookishness in all its forms, and the love of writing and reading, building on the beloved literary comics featured on his website, Incidental Comics.”
—Matt, Community Engagement Manager
The Life of Raymond Chandler by Frank MacShane
From the publisher: “As Frank MacShane’s entertaining biography shows, Raymond Chandler was the genuine article: a serious novelist who touched millions of readers. Drawing extensively on conversations with surviving members of the Chandler circle…and from exclusive access to private correspondence and unpublished papers, Mr. MacShane’s book is the first study of the life and times of this lively and influential literary figure.”
—Cassidy, Guest Services Manager
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
From the publisher: “The renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict—Dakar, Senegal; Columbia, South Carolina; and Palestine—to explore how the stories we tell, and the ones we don’t, shape our realities…Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.”
—Andrew, Institutional Giving Manager
Night of the Avenging Blowfish: A Novel of Covert Operations, Love, and Luncheon Meat by John Welter
This book is hilarious and everyone should read it.
More from the publisher: “Secret Service agent Doyle Coldiron gets into hot water before you can say, ‘Just the facts, ma’am.’ Soon he’s swept up in an outrageous flood of events in this cockeyed look at Washington life and at the confusing business of falling in love in the 1990s.”
—Annie, Education Associate
No Other Land by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor
From Rotten Tomatoes: “For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel’s occupation, as he builds an unlikely alliance with a journalist from the other side who joins his fight.”
This vital and harrowing documentary also just won recently at the 2025 Academy Awards, in the category of Best Documentary Feature.
—Maya, Marketing & Creative Associate
Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm video game developed by Cornfox & Bros.
From the developer: “Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm, set a thousand years before the events of the first chapter, takes you on a magical journey across the vast world of Gaia, brimming with mythology and lore. A young Knight faces an impossible challenge, as Warlock Mesmeroth has returned with a formidable Dark Army. Will our hero be able to unite the Owrus, Gillfolk, and men in a fight for the fate of the world?”
—Christopher, Director of Operations
The Overstory by Richard Powers
From the publisher: “The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.”
—Christopher, Director of Operations
Phonetics On and On by Horsegirl
From Matador Records: “There is something about the bitter cold in Chicago that unites the city in January—the two weeks in 2024 that Horsegirl spent recording Phonetics On and On were some of the coldest days in Chicago that year. With the heating off in The Loft to avoid sound interference, the band was bundled in multiple sweaters and sitting on their hands between takes. Working closely with musician/producer Cate Le Bon (Deerhunter, Kurt Vile, Wilco), Horsegirl found focus and intimacy in the studio that can only arise when it’s simply too cold to step outside. Abandoning the heavy saturation and character studies of Versions of Modern Performance, Le Bon leads them into new, bright, clear, sonic territories that highlight the inventive nature of these new songs.”
—Christopher, Director of Operations
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
From the publisher: “The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books…Spanning nearly a century of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wilder’s dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mythology of self-reliance. With fresh insights and new discoveries, Prairie Fires reveals the complex woman whose classic stories grip us to this day.”
—Carol, Assistant Director of Development
Presumed Guilty by Scott Turow
From the publisher: “Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea…But Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears…Aaron eventually turns up with a vague story about a camping trip with his troubled girlfriend, Mae, that ended in a fight…and when Mae is subsequently discovered dead, Aaron is arrested…Bea begs Rusty to return to court one last time, to defend her son and to save their last best hope for happiness. For Rusty, the question is not whether to defend Aaron, or whether the boy is in fact innocent—it’s whether the system to which he has devoted his life can ever provide true justice for those who are presumed guilty.”
—Carey, President
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
From the publisher: “Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of Black America—and changed American theater forever. The play’s title comes from a line in Langston Hughes’s poem ‘Harlem,’ which warns that a dream deferred might ‘dry up/like a raisin in the sun.'”
This is also playing through March at Court Theater!
—Andrew, Institutional Giving Manager
Saint George and The Dragon by Rory Mullarkey
From the publisher: “A village. A dragon. A damsel in distress. Into the story walks George: wandering knight, freedom fighter, enemy of tyrants the world over. One epic battle later and a nation is born. As the village grows into a town, and the town into a city, the myth of Saint George which once brought a people together, threatens to divide them.”
—Matt, Community Engagement Manager
The Secrets of Flowers by Sally Page
From the publisher: “The Secrets of Flowers is a heartwarming novel about a grieving woman who rediscovers herself by uncovering the lost story of the girl who arranged flowers on the Titanic. One year after her husband’s death, Emma has become a wallflower, hiding among the brighter blooms in the florist where she works. But when a colleague invites her to a talk on the Titanic, she begins a quest to uncover who arranged the flowers on board. As Emma discovers the lost story of the girl and the great ship, she realizes that flowers may unlock long-buried secrets in her own life. Will she be able to unlock the mystery of the Titanic and heal her own heart too?”
—Annie, Education Associate
Seduction & Snacks by Tara Sivec
Hilarious debut novel, very NSFW.
More from the publisher: “Claire is a twenty-something, single mom that grudgingly helps her best friend sell sex toys while she attempts to make enough money to start her own business to give her foul-mouthed, but extremely lovable (when he’s asleep) toddler a better life. When Carter, the one-night-stand from her past that changed her life forever, shows up in her hometown bar without any recollection of her besides her unique chocolate scent, Claire will make it a point that he remembers her this time. With Carter’s undisguised shock at suddenly finding out he has a four-year-old son, and Claire’s panic that her stretch marks and slim to none bedroom experience will send the man of her dreams heading for the hills, the pair will do whatever they can to get their happily ever after.”
—Annie, Education Associate
Visit our Reading Recommendations page for more book lists.