Top 10 Kindle Books for March

From Theodore Roosevelt's quest to clean up sin-soaked New York City to the travails of a Tokyo pickpocket, our editors' selections for the Best Books of March features engaging nonfiction, imaginative new novels, and a moving short story collection.

 

The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits
A paranormal detective story, an affecting exposition of familial and female dynamics, and a hilarious satire of academic politics: Heidi Julavits has crafted an ambitious and strange novel.

 

 

Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up ... New York by Richard Zacks
Overrun with gambling and bootleg liquor, NYC was known as the "Island of Vice." Zacks's fun, enthusiastic style makes this well-researched history memorable.

 

 

Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
Looping from Nazi-occupied Europe to modern-day Baltimore and back, Esi Edugyan's Giller Prize winner is an electrifying, musical novel about racism and what we're willing to surrender for love and art.

 

 

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Betrayal, ardor, war, and prophecies... Author Madeline Miller gathers to love about Homer's "Iliad" without the labor of epic poetry, resulting in an absorbing, gratifyingly modern story.

 

 

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura
Nakamura's protagonist weaves through the streets of Tokyo, pickpocketing his way through the flow of humanity, but the thief begins to realize a noose is being drawn around his neck.

 

 

Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
Combining cutting-edge neurological research with the age-old mystery of how and when inspiration strikes, Jonah Lehrer crafts a fun and engaging study of creativity.

 

 

Wild by Cheryl Strayed
At 26, following the death of her mother, divorce, and a run of reckless behavior, Cheryl Strayed found herself embarking on a solo thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. It's a well-balanced wilderness tale and personal-redemption memoir.

 

 

The Reconstructionist by Nick Arvin
Ellis Barstow, whose brother died young in a car crash, makes a living conducting auto accident postmortems. In love with his boss's wife, Ellis' brother's high school girlfriend, Ellis seeks answers to his brother's death.

 

 

White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf by Aaron Bobrow-Strain
Over the last hundred years, bread has gone from cure-all to fluff, and every place in between: this is table-bread's true story.

 

 

Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Megan Mayhew Bergman
This collection of stories constructs a world filled with nature and family who hate and love and mostly need one another, each satisfying in a way short fiction rarely does.