This week, it's all about picnics. Two booksellers who will remain unnamed raised their eyebrows at the theme: picnics? Isn't it a little early? No! Not too early! One of the silver linings of the past year is that we have left fair weather picnics behind. We're now all experts at bundling up and hunkering down no matter the season , eager for the chance to share a meal with others in the safest way possible. And so, picnic picks it is...

Yesterday I breezed through the delightful new novel from Jhumpa Lahiri: Whereabouts. It's the first she's written in Italian and translated to English, a feat in itself. Towards the end of the book, a small scene depicts a glorious train picnic involving walnuts, dried figs, oranges, and much raucous laughter. Lahiri's prose, spare in the best way possible, left my heart aching for the temporarily lost practice of travel among strangers. Whereabouts releases on April 27 and you can pre-order your copy now. I loved it. Sheila loved it. Brianna loved it. Chances are good you'll love it too.

Next up, a classic featuring the well-known Box Hill picnic which was, at the turn of the eighteenth century, imagined as a gathering that would allow the attendees to be one with nature. Of course this picnic is anything but an organic happening. The amount of preparation and staff needed to carry off the event seems foreign to our contemporary tread-lightly-approach. Nevertheless it's an iconic scene and one that cements Emma in this list.

Shirley Hazzard's Collected Stories contains an episode titled simply "The Picnic." No mouthwatering descriptions of food or drink here but Hazzard serves up a deft portrayal of tainted love. A strained threesome of grown folks each offers their candid perspective on the situation: a husband, a wife, and the third wheel: a former lover of the husband and young cousin of the wife. As The Guardian notes about Hazzard's writing: "the Austrailian-American writer's short fiction is full of precisely observed studies of thwarted connection."

Given that April is National Poetry Month it seems apropos that we include a volume here. Picnic, Lighting from former Poet Laureate Billy Collins recalls Lolita and the death of Humbert Humbert's mother: "My very photogenic mother died in a freak accident (picnic, lightning) when I was three." This is the fourth collection from Collins and the first to be widely distributed. Living in an old house that sometimes invites small critters in out of the cold, I'm partial to "I Chop Some Parsley While Listening to Art Blakely's Version of "Three Blind Mice.'"

Finally, now that you've worked up an appetite, let me recommend this fabulously fun cookbook: Max's Picnic Book. It's just what it sounds like, filled with rather easy-to-execute, creative picnic menus that will teach you to #picniclikeaboss. I heard the author, Max Halley on The Menu, a podcast from Monocle and I recommend you give it a listen. His enthusiasm for everything from soft boiled eggs to leftovers to martinis in a thermos will have you dusting off your basket, stocking up on durable serveware and rushing for the door.