Books for Pisces

Pisces, as the most sensitive sign of the zodiac, you will be thinking about this memoir for a long time after you finish it. New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu writes about an unlikely close friendship from his teen years. At eighteen years old, the two couldn’t have been more different. Hua makes ‘zines and hunts for vinyl in Bay Area record shops, and Ken is a preppy fraternity member. But what the two have in common is a shared Asian-American identity and the sense that American culture doesn’t have a place for them. Not three years after the boys meet and form their bond, Ken is killed in a carjacking, and Hua begins writing as a way of holding on to his dear friend’s memories.

Pisces, you have so much love for others, and it’s important to share some with yourself. Yoga and mindfulness teacher Rosie Acosta guides you through the spiritual practices she and her students have used to create a radically loved life. Identify and honor your own radical truth.

Pisces, music matters a great deal to you, so this is a must-read. Shine Bright is an intimate history of the Black women who created American pop, starting with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems. Mixing biography with criticism and memoir, Danyel Smith illuminates the stories of the musical masters who have often been hidden in plain sight.

Pisces, the latest tale from award-winning author Helen Oyeyemi is sure to enchant you. Lovers Otto and Xavier Shin are packed up and shipped off on a sleeper train by an aunt who wishes to celebrate their commitment to each other and get them out of her house. They quickly discern that The Lucky Day is not a normal train. Their experience is curated, with touches like their favorite breakfast foods, and they seem to be the only ones on board. When they receive a surprising message, they begin unraveling the mystery.

Pisces, this fairytale made-for-TV romance about a plus-size fashion blogger will give you all the feels. Bea loves the popular reality TV show Main Squeeze, but she can’t help noticing the lack of body diversity on the show. When she is offered the chance to be the star, surrounded by eager modern-day suitors, she takes it. She’s doing it to inspire women everywhere, build her brand, and change beauty standards. Not to fall in love, of course. But when she finds herself in this world of couture and handsome men, things begin to change.

Pisces, as a sensitive water sign who is intimately familiar with the whole range of emotions, you’ll appreciate Susan Cain’s approach to what she calls a bittersweet state of mind. The experience of sorrow, of longing, grief, and intensity, is undervalued in a society that prioritizes happiness sometimes to the exclusion of feeling anything else. Just as she revolutionized the way we see introversion, Cain shows how acknowledging heartache can help us move through pain.

Pisces, this is a beautiful and moving epic about family ties and the shape of grief. Cassandra’s family lost her little brother, Wayne, when she was twelve and he was seven. Ever since then, the family is fractured and in mourning. Her father leaves and her mother never gives up the hope of finding her son again. C thinks she sees him everywhere, until one day, she does meet a man named Wayne. Could it be her brother?