A Story About Growing Up in the White House and More of the Very Best Books Coming Out in February

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This month, pile your nightstand with a peek inside how an iconic First Family lived, a look inside the mind of one of our greatest filmmakers, a hotly anticipated thriller a decade in the making, and so much more. Here are T&C's picks for the best books of February 2024.

Dear Mom and Dad: A Letter About Family, Memory, and the America We Once Knew

Patti Davis grew up in the public eye, but that doesn't mean we know what it was like for her. In this sharp, touching new book, the writer (and T&C contributor) investigates not only her own experience, but also tries to understand her famous parents and what made them into the people they were. It's a book about well known people, but it's a story that any of us can relate to—and one that all of us should read.

Burma Sahib

From the legendary novelist Paul Theroux, still as prolific as ever in his 80s, comes a sweeping work of historical fiction that blends his masterful storytelling with his well-traveled mastery of a sense of place. Here, the protagonist is the real-life Eric Blair, a young Eton grad assigned to serve the British crown as an officer overseeing local policemen in colonial Burma. Cue the culture shock, the racial divisions, and the class conflicts that propel the drama, all against the backdrop of 1920s Burma. And who did Eric Blair later become? George Orwell.

Kubrick: An Odyssey

The stories that filmmaker Stanley Kubrick told on screen—from Dr. Strangelove to The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut—were complicated and captivating, just like the man himself. In this wide-ranging new biography from Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams, Kubrick's life and work are explored through private documents and interviews with his friends and family to help tell the largely unknown story of a man whose work helped define our culture.

Tiffany & Co.: The Landmark

The opening, after a year-long restoration, of Tiffany & Co.'s Fifth Avenue flagship, was big news. And if you've been by the Peter Marino-designed, art-filled, people-filled store any time recently, you know that it still is. This new book, by Alba Cappellieri and Christopher Young, explores the Landmark building, its history,its secrets, and all of the artists and artisans who've made it what it is today. Give your coffee table an upgrade; an Elsa Peretti thumbprint bowl and a copy of this book should do the trick.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead

Jenny Hollander's debut novel is a twisty, thrilling story you won't be able to put down. Nine years ago, Charlie was a witness to the horrific events at her journalism school on Christmas Eve. She fled, and rebuilt her life, but when one of her former classmates starts working on a film about the events, Charlie must grapple with how far she'll go to protect her peace.

The Year of the Locust

It's been 10 years since Terry Hayes—who was a successful screenwriter before he became an author—released the hit I Am Pilgrim, often considered one of the greatest spy books of the modern era. That time away has been well spent. The Year of the Locust is another massive book (this one clocks in at 800 pages) chronicling the twists and turns of international intelligence agents out to save the world. Hayes is a master of plot, but also has an insight and style that makes his stories impossible to put down or forget.

Cocktails with George and Martha

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf might tell one of the great stories ever captured on film (or seen on stage), but the story of how Edward Albee's play came to be a monster hit, and how Mike Nichols brought it to the big screen, is equally captivating. In this well researched and deliciously dishy new book, Philip Gefter explores the world that shaped Albee and how he used it to develop his great work, and follows the ups and downs involved in creating the film—Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were just the beginning!—to paint an incredible picture of the creative process among some of the brightest minds of their time.

Private Equity

This debut memoir from Carrie Sun is bound to fascinate and terrify titans of finance in equal measure. That's because Sun writes of her own experience as the right hand to a billionaire banker, and shares incredible insights from the world that he inhabited, and in which she herself got lost. It's an observant, fascinating look at a rarefied space of power and privilege that's rarely on public view, and an unparalleled peek inside a system that shapes us all, whether we know it or not.

Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions

Ed Zwick has had a long, storied career on screen, directing and producing iconic projects including thirtysomething, Legends of the Fall, About Last Night, and Shakespeare in Love. Now, he's sharing one of the most remarkable stories of all, his own, on the page. This funny, insightful, and deliciously dishy memoircovers the highs and lows of life in Hollywood, recalls the superstars and psychopaths who've crossed Zwick's path, and shares the all-too-rare truth about what really happens behind the scenes of one of the world's most glamorous industries.

I Heard Her Call My Name

In 2021, Lucy Sante announced on Instagram that after 67 years of living as a man, she was transitioning to female. She recounts that journey in her memoir, which weaves the biographical details of her life—an upbringing in a conservative working-class Catholic household, living in New York in the early 70s and finding comfort in its bohemian circles, building her writing career—with her day-to-day experience of transitioning. The result is a moving work that explores what it means to reconcile our inner selves with the ones we present to the world.

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story

This memoir from the author of The Recovering and The Empathy Exams takes all of Jamison's talent for shrewd observation and illuminating prose and focuses on it a single subject: her own life. From the implosion of a marriage to the incomparable emotions around motherwood, Jamison's own experiences are explored with a rare insight and consideration. It's fascinating to see her dissect her own lived experience, and a fine way for readers to start thinking about their own.

Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday's Last Year

She may now be remembered best for her iconic hits, but during her time, Billie Holiday was as famous for her contributions to jazz and pop music as she was for her personal demons, which would eventually claim her life, at age 44, from alcohol-related liver cirrhosis. In the first biography of the singer to be released in more than two decades, Paul Alexander—who has penned bios of J.D. Salinger, Sylvia Plath, John McCain, and Karl Rove—zeroes in on the last year of her life, using interviews and new material found in private archives to change the final narrative of Lady Day—and reveal the extraordinary woman she was underneath all that pain.

American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden

Entering the canon of First Lady books is American Woman, which traces the evolution of the modern first lady, beginning with Hillary Clinton, and detailing the tenure of Dr. Jill Biden. New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers draws on her time covering two presidential administrations for this deeply interesting, and thoroughly researched, look at the role of First Lady.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

In A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, a romance, plays out against the backdrop of magical realism. The titular Ricki moves from Atlanta to Harlem to follow her dream of opening a flower shop. One night, she meets a mysterious jazz pianist named Ezra in her backyard—and a romance blossoms despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. It's both a love letter to the history of Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, and a fantastic, sweeping, magical love story.

Ours

American poet Phillip B. Williams makes his fiction debut with Ours, a sweeping, epic novel set in the 1830s American South. The story follows Saint, a conjuror who rescues enslaved people from plantations in Arkansas and brings them to a magically concealed town named Ours. Ours, Williams writes in an author's note, "is my attempt at creating a contemporary mythology for Blackness in the United States of America." And what a remarkable result.

Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See

The art world is hard to understand on purpose. The people who buy, the prices the pay, and the places they go are all designed to be mysterious enough to both intrigue and befuddle everyone who isn't on the inside. That's exactly why Bianca Bosker decided to go inside and write this dispatch that covers everything from working as a museum guard to crashing an art party packed with billionaires. Through her funny and fascinating experiences, she does the seemingly impossible: sheds light on a strange world of beautiful things and the sometimes-ugly business around them.

Burn Book: A Tech Love Story

Nobody knows tech better than Kara Swisher, and this recounting of her decades in the Silicon Valley trenches recounts not only how we ended up living in (and scrolling through) the world as it is today, but also sheds light on her journey to becoming one of the most important and feared voices in the industry.

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange's follow-up to his bestselling, critically acclaimed There There is here, and it was worth the wait. Wandering Stars looks at the legacy of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, following the story of one family through three generations. It's somewhat of a prequel and a sequel to There There, because of the same characters, but it can be read entirely on its own. As the great Louise Erdrich blurbed, "With an all-seeing heart, he traces historical and contemporary cruelties, vagaries, salvations and solutions visited upon young Cheyenne people, who cope with the impossible. In them, Tommy finds the unnerving strength that results when a broken spirit mends itself, when a wandering star finds its place, when, in spite of everything, Native people manage to survive."

The Book of Love

The debut novel of Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link is full of magic. The story begins when three teenagers—Laura, Daniel, and Mo—find themselves in their high school classroom, nearly a year after they disappeared from their small seaside Massachusetts town. How are they back? Why are they back? Why can't they remember what happened to them? They soon learn that they have to compete magical tasks—and only two of the three of them will get to stay alive. Link takes her readers on a wild, compelling ride, full of fantastical twists and turns.

Greta & Valdin

We never want to judge a book by its cover (okay, maybe sometimes we do), but the instant we saw Greta & Valdin's fantastic cover—we knew we had to read this novel. And Rebecca K Reilly's story is just as good: It follows siblings Greta and Valdin as they navigate the drama of dating and unconventional family and Maaori-Russian-Catalonian identity. A year after a bad breakup, Valdin's work sends him to Buenos Aires, where his ex lives, while back in Auckland, Greta is trying to finish her master's thesis and navigate dating as a twenty-something. To give you a sense of the vibes: It's touted as Schitt's Creek meets Normal People.

Fangirl Down

It's February, which means it's perfect time for a steamy romance novel. Tessa Bailey's newest sports romance, Fangirl Down, delivers. It follows golfer Wells Whitaker, who quits the tour, but is encouraged to try again by his no. 1 fan, Josephine Doyle, who runs her family's golf shop. He asks her to be his caddy, but soon, their relationship turns less-than-professional.

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