It's amazing how quickly the night passes when you start doing a little online book browsing. I really didn't mean to, it's not what I set off to do last night. I had planned to write about one of my recent finishes, but time flies when you are discovering new books. Here are ten forthcoming books I am now watching for:
The Green Road by Anne Enright -- I have yet to read Anne Enright (though I have read a few of her short stories). Since I am on a little Irish Literature binge . . . "From internationally acclaimed author Anne Enright comes a shattering novel set in a small town on Ireland's Atlantic coast. The Green Road is a tale of family and fracture, compassion and selfishness—a book about the gaps in the human heart and how we strive to fill them."
Talk by Linda Rosenkrantz -- This is an NYRB Classic due out this summer. Maybe I'll get it as part of my subscription? "Friendships are built on chatter, on gossip, on revelations—on talk. Over the course of the summer of 1965, Linda Rosenkrantz taped conversations between three friends (two straight, one gay) on the cusp of thirty vacationing at the beach: Emily, an actor; Vince, a painter; and Marsha, a writer. The result was Talk, a novel in dialogue." They have some of the most interesting-sounding books!
In the Spider's House by Sarah Diamond -- "When her husband's job requires that they relocate to a small village in Dorset, Anna becomes absorbed in researching local history for her second novel. Quaint little Abbots Newton turns out to have been home to a notorious murderess. In fact, the murderess lived in Anna's house. In fact there's no use borrowing trouble, is there? Not when trouble keeps turning up on Anna's doorstep, and her new research project is looking more and more like obsession."
Paris Red by Maureen Gibbon -- "Paris, 1862. A young girl in a threadbare dress and green boots, hungry for experience, meets the mysterious and wealthy artist Édouard Manet. The encounter will change her—and the art world—forever."
Villa America by Liza Klaussmann -- "Villa America was in fact a real house on the French Riviera that Sara and Gerald Murphy built to escape to in the 1920's. Members of a group of expat Americans, they were known for their fabulous parties and for making the Riviera into the glamorous place it is today. Their freewheeling days were filled with champagne and caviar, but these were people who kept secrets and who were, of course, heartbreakingly human."
French Concession by Xiao Bai -- "An acclaimed Chinese writer makes his English language debut with this heart-stopping literary noir, a richly atmospheric tale of espionage and international intrigue, set in Shanghai in 1931—an electrifying, decadent world of love, violence, and betrayal filled with femme fatales, criminals, revolutionaries, and spies." This sounds good, and I am not sure I have read anything translated from Chinese!
We That Are Left by Clare Clark -- "It is 1910. Jessica and Phyllis Melville have grown up at Ellinghurst, their family estate. A headstrong beauty, Jessica longs for London — the glitter and glamor of debutante life — while bookish Phyllis dreams in vain of attending the university. Neither girl questions that it is Theo, their adored brother, whom their mother loves best. Theo eclipses everyone around him, including diffident Oskar Grunewald — a prodigy in the rapidly evolving fields of math and physics — who with his mother is a frequent visitor to Ellinghurst. Fascinated by the house but alternately tormented and ignored by the Melville children, Oskar seeks refuge in Ellinghurst’s enormous library."
Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart -- "Constance Kopp doesn’t quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago. One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. When the sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, Constance is forced to confront her past and defend her family — and she does it in a way that few women of 1914 would have dared.
The Vienna Melody by Ernst Lothar -- "Three generations of Alts live and die at number 10 Silerstatte and each member of the family, in his or or her own way, is a privileged witness to the winds of change and a Europe at the height of both its splendor and decadence."
A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George -- Elizabeth George is one of the few mystery writers who I can say I have read all her books, though to be honest I have fallen a bit behind in the Lynley series. I have two to read before this newest comes out in the fall! " . . . in her twentieth Inspector Lynley novel, A Banquet of Consequences, George delivers another winner as Lynley and Havers are drawn from Cambridge to London to the windswept town of Shaftesbury during one of their most complex cases yet."
Reading presents so many dilemmas (aside from the usual too many good books and not enough time to read them in). The latest is thinking of all the mysteries I love to read (see last book in list) and knowing I have neglected so many of the series I have enjoyed following in the past. And then there are all the new ones I am curious about reading, too. I need more balance--between reading my own books from the shelves and reading new books and between reading mysteries and everything else. You know this started out as a simple search for new books by Elizabeth George and morphed into general book browsing. I have this mental list of authors I watch for. Many of my favorites have nothing new on the horizon (like Clare Chambers, Joanne Harris, Barbara Tradpido . . . ) but mystery writers almost always are good about publishing regularly. I sometimes wonder if that is a good thing or not!