5 books we can’t wait to read in March

There’s a little bit of everything coming to libraries and bookstores in March.

Dirt-spilling superstar memoirs? Showbiz survivor Liza Minnelli has you covered. Bound-to-be-bestselling thrillers? Tana French is on it, with the return of a beloved character last seen in 2024 in “The Hunter.” Books with Minnesota connections? There’s nonfiction, (hopefully) spine-tingling fiction and a book for young folks on the way in the next few weeks.

We can’t wait to read those (and we didn’t even have room to include “Lake Effect,” the new family melodrama from bestselling “The Nest” writer Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney). You can get a jump on adding all of these to your library request list now:

“The HOA” by Tanya Smith

The Minneapolis-born author of outrageous memoir “Never Saw Me Coming‚” about her youthful career in multiple types of fraud (it’s been announced as a movie, starring Janelle Monae as Smith), shifts to fiction with her second book. “The HOA” is a paranoid thriller set in a community controlled by a powerful homeowners association. In the book, rules that initially seem to make sense gradually shift — from getting fined for painting your house the wrong color to murder and blackmail. (March 3)

“Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!” by Liza Minnelli

Of course there’s an exclamation point at the end of the title of the vibrant EGOT winner’s memoir, written with her friend Michael Feinstein. Details have been scant on the book (as is often the case with blockbuster celebrity autobiographies) but you know the daughter of Minnesota native Judy Garland and director Vincent Minnelli, the pal of movie and dance legend Bob Fosse, the former lover of directing legend Martin Scorsese and the star of movies including “Cabaret,” “Arthur” and the underrated “New York New York” has a ton of stories to tell. Unlike, say, Barbra Streisand’s entertaining but surface-y memoir, Minnelli’s book promises that she is spilling the dirt on substance abuse, broken hearts and artistic achievements that include conquering Hollywood, Broadway and the concert stage. (March 10)

Older siblings, in particular, may spark to the Duluth-based writer’s inventive picture book about Evie, who tries to escape from her little brothers and sisters — only to discover they’ve escaped along with her. There’s a little magic and a lot of imagination as she summons a world of fantastic adventure that, like “Alice in Wonderland,” may or may not really exist. (Feb. 17)

“Making Mill City” by Robert M. Frame III

Most Minnesotans are familiar with the names of Washburn and Pillsbury, both of which adorn mills that are National Historic Landmarks along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Those entrepreneurs figure into Frame’s heavily illustrated book, which takes readers back to roughly 1870-1920, the era when new technology made the city a hugely influential supplier of flour. But “Making Mill City” is less interested in the big-bucks people than the millwrights and millers whose blood, sweat and tears helped build the city. (March 24)

“The Keeper” by Tana French