Someday it’s going to be spring, and you’re going to start thinking about what to read this summer. To get you started, here are nine novels and a story collection to consider. Some are just published. Others you might have already, or made a note to read, because they were published in hardcover last year but are now debuting in paperback. What these books have in common is that they are worthwhile, well written, grappling with issues, and involving. No fluff here. Just because it’s hot doesn’t mean we can’t feed our brains.

“An American Marriage” by Tayari Jones (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill): Selected for Oprah’s Book Club, this story centers on Roy O. Hamilton, a successful graduate of Morehouse College who is wrongly imprisoned for 12 years in a Louisiana prison for a rape he didn’t commit, and his wife, Celestial, a Spelman graduate from an upper-class Atlanta family. Roy’s conviction is overturned and a new narrator is Andre, best man at the wedding, who has slipped into Roy’s place in the five years he was in prison. It’s about love, marriage, generational differences and social class.

“I Was Anastasia” by Ariel Lawhon (Doubleday): Lawhon, who will be a guest reader at Literature Lovers’ Night Out on April 17-18, tells dual stories of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, youngest daughter of the Russian Czar and his wife, Alexandra, granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The imperial family was murdered in the basement of an old house in a few minutes of bloody horror, but rumors persisted that one of four daughters escaped. Although all the bodies have been identified, this is a story that still vibrates in our imaginations today. Lawhon puts herself in the mind of the feisty Anastasia as she lives through imprisonment after the Revolution, and in the mind of Anna Anderson, found in a canal in Germany in February 1920, claiming to be Anastasia. Anna’s fight for her title and the money set aside for the Romanov children led to decades of ligation as Anna tried to prove her identity against claims of her Romanov aunts and cousins that she was not the imperial daughter. Anna is homeless, relying on an heiress and others to allow her to live with them in the United States and Europe. And everyone wants something from her — the press, her benefactors, Adolph Hitler and Ingrid Bergman, who played Anna in a film. The reader is left to decide for herself whether Anna is the lost princess. Lawhon walks a tightrope here, with Anna’s story being told backward in time, and she succeeds brilliantly.

“The Hate You Give” by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray): Published in 2017, this debut novel is still widely discussed. Although it’s aimed at readers 14 and older, it should be read by adults as well because it’s so timely. Inspired by Black Lives Matter, it’s about 16-year-old Starr Carter who moves between the poor black neighborhood where she lives and her elite prep school. Her life is never the same after she witnesses the death of her best friend, Khalil, who some call a drug dealer and gangbanger. Starr knows that’s not true, and when her neighborhood is turned into a war zone by people protesting Khalil’s death, she has to tell what she knows about that night, perhaps destroying her community and putting herself at risk. Thomas captures the horror of watching a friend die in front of you and what it does — and continues to do — to families and communities.

“A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out” by Sally Franson (Dial Press): Touted as “Mad Men” meets “The Devil Wears Prada,” this Minneapolis author’s story centers on a book-loving brand strategist and superstar at a top ad agency. When her hard-to-please boss asks her to take on a top-secret marketing campaign pairing authors with corporations, she woos literary idols and questions the cost on her conscience. Franson, who lives in Minneapolis, attended the University of Minnesota. Her humor column, “Loosely Literal,” appears monthly with support of the Loft Literary Center. (Franson will introduce her novel at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, in conversation with Joanna Demkiewicz, co-founder/editorial director of The Riveter magazine. The free program, presented by Milkweed Books, will be in the Open Book building, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls.)

“Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders (Random House): In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln’s 11-year-old son, Willie, died and was placed in a tomb. But the grieving father couldn’t let the boy go, and he goes to the graveyard to visit the body when nobody is around. The president is watched by the ghosts in the bardo, a strange place where Willie finds himself. The ghosts, who tussle over Willie’s soul, complain, reminisce, bicker, fly around the cemetery grounds and tell their fading life stories. Winner of the Man Booker prize, Saunders’ first novel is inventive and, yes, sometimes humorous.

“Oliver Loving” by Stefan Merrill Block (Flatiron Books): Oliver Loving, a bright, quiet high school student, is shot by another teen at a dance where Oliver had reluctantly gone to see Rebekkah, the girl to whom he wrote poetry. Ten years later, he is still lying paralyzed in a care facility. The story is told from the viewpoints of his mother, Eve, who always wanted Oliver and his brother, Charlie, to fill the void in her life; their father, Jed, an alcoholic and failed artist who keeps his distance from his damaged son; Charlie, who thinks he’ll write Oliver’s story but doesn’t know how; Rebekkah, who’s fled to New York, and Oliver himself, locked in his imagination and with some awareness of what’s going on around him. Into the picture comes a speech therapist who claims she can feel Oliver’s responses through a muscle in his hand. Everyone around Oliver carries guilt for what they did or didn’t do the night Oliver was shot. Gripping and tender, this is a richly layered read.

“Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward (Simon & Schuster): Winner of the National Book Award in fiction, this is the story of Leonie, a black woman who takes her 13-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter from their grandparents for a road trip to pick up their white father, who’s being released from prison. The boy, Jojo, is responsible for his sister and their mother doesn’t know how to love them as much as she loves their father. She also sees this trip as a way to score some drugs. Hovering over the trip are two restless ghosts whose lives ended violently. They are the ones who sing.

“To Die But Once” by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper): Devoted fans of Winspear’s best-selling Maisie Dobbs series will surely put Maisie’s 14th adventure in their beach bags. It begins in late May 1940, when a case seemingly unconnected to the war against Germany’s European advance comes Maisie’s way. The son of a local pub landlord has been reported missing while working on a job painting buildings on airfields across the country. As news of the thousands of soldiers stranded on the beaches of France is revealed, the threat of invasion rises and another young man beloved by Maisie makes a terrible decision. Maisie’s investigation uncovers a link between the missing man and a London crime lord who will not hesitate to resort to violence. Winspear says this suspenseful historical fiction is based on the experiences of her late father, who served a a boy apprentice in 1940.

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Pandemic prose: COVID-19 sparks literary efforts “The Widows of Malabar Hill” by Sujata Massey (Soho Press): Massey, who grew up in St. Paul, takes us to 1920s Bombay to introduce Perveen Mistry, daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family who’s just joined her father’s law firm as the only woman lawyer in the city. Her first case is executing the will of a wealthy Muslim who leaves behind three widows. The women are not allowed to interact with men, so only Perveen can visit them and she immediately suspects their guardian is not what he seems. She is helped in her investigation by her friendship with the governor’s wealthy daughter. In this first of an involving mystery series, Massey has given us a smart, strong woman in Perveen, who is breaking barriers while she uses her skills at a time when women were expected to stay in the home.

“What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky” by Lesley Nneka Arimah (Riverhead Books): This debut story collection from a Minneapolis author won the 2017 Kirkus Prize and was named a Best Book by at least eight literary publications. It also won Arimah inclusion in the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 honors. These 12 stories reflect the author’s background growing up in Nigeria and the United States. Her stories, some that embrace magical realism, are about family members’ interaction. Three generations of women are haunted by war; two cousins, one docile and one in trouble, bond; a woman desperate for a child weaves one from hair, and a father grapples with how to raise and empower his young daughter. (The author will read at 7 p.m. April 16 at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.)