It's not too early to think about fall is it? I guess I should at least wait until after the Fourth of July, but since I have been getting emails teasing me with forthcoming releases, I might as well pass a few (that have particularly caught my eye) on to you!
Moonglow by Michael Chabon -- "Chabon’s novel unfolds as the deathbed confession of a man referred to only as “my grandfather”—a tale of madness, war, adventure, sex, desire, love, existential doubt, and model rocketry."
Swing Time by Zadie Smith -- "Two girls dream of being dancers—but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, and about what constitutes a tribe and what makes a person truly free. The friendship ends abruptly, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten." I really do think it is time I read some of her work.
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple -- "A day in the life of Eleanor Flood, forced to abandon small ambitions and awake to a strange, new future as an encounter with a former colleague threatens to reveal a buried family secret."
The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine -- "The new novel by the National Book Award finalist is about an Arab-American poet whose adult life in San Francisco spans the AIDS decades, and his struggle to remember and forget the events of an astonishing life."
Mr. Eternity b Aaron Tier -- "An ambitious genre-bender spans 1,000 years of high-seas adventure, environmental and cultural catastrophe, and enduring love." Hmm. Not sure about this one but it caught my attention!
Nine Island by Jane Alison -- "An intimate autobiographical novel is told by J, a middle-aged woman living in a glass tower on one of Miami Beach’s lush Venetian Islands as she tries to decide whether to withdraw forever from romantic love." Yup, this one is for me.
Another Place You've Never Been by Rebecca Kauffman -- "In her mid-30s and living in Buffalo, N.Y., Tracy spends most days at the restaurant where she works as a hostess, despite her aspirations of a career that would use her creative talents. A novel in linked short stories illuminates the ways in which families are created by being destroyed."
A Gambler's Anatomy by Jonathan Lethem -- "The author of Motherless Brooklyn returns with a novel about an international backgammon hustler who thinks he’s psychic. Too bad about the tumor in his face." Hah. Have never read Lethem but I have Motherless Brooklyn, and the description elicited a mental guffaw. Must check this one out.
Nutshell by Ian McEwan -- "From the bestselling author of Atonement, this is a classic story of murder and deceit, told by a narrator with a unique perspective and voice."
**The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis -- "Davis’s debut novel pulls readers into the world of New York City’s glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women, where a present-day journalist living in the renovated and renamed condo becomes consumed with uncovering a dark secret buried deep within the Barbizon’s glitzy past." I've starred this one as the publisher kindly offered a galley copy of this to me (I think it is even now winging its way to me), so I will definitely be reading it and telling you more about it later this summer!
4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster -- "Nearly two weeks early, Archibald Isaac Ferguson, the only child of Rose and Stanley Ferguson, is born on March 3, 1947, in the maternity ward of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, N.J. From that single beginning, Ferguson’s life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths."
The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies -- " Four lives—a railroad baron’s valet who unwittingly ignites an explosion in Chinese labor, Hollywood’s first Chinese movie star, a hate-crime victim whose death mobilizes Asian-Americans, and a biracial writer visiting China for an adoption—illuminate United States history through the experiences of Chinese-Americans." I loved his first book and am excited to see a new novel coming soon.
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton -- "A debut novel is set at the edges of civilization: a lonely scientist in the Arctic, and an astronaut returning from a long journey, each haunted by questions of love, memory, and regret, in the face of an uncertain future."
Faithful by Alice Hoffman -- "Growing up on Long Island, Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt."
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles -- "In 1922, Count Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal and sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov must live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors." Loved his first book!
Angel Catbird by Margaret Atwood -- "On a dark night, young genetic engineer Strig Feleedus is accidentally mutated by his own experiment and merges with the DNA of a cat and an owl. What follows is a humorous, action-driven, pulp-inspired superhero adventure—with a lot of feline puns."
The Trespasser by Tana French -- "Antoinette Conway and her partner, Stephen Moran, of Dublin’s Murder Squad have a new case that looks like yet another by-the-numbers lovers’ quarrel gone bad, but other detectives are pushing Antoinette and Steve to arrest the female victim’s boyfriend, fast. The pair soon learn that all is not as it seems." I have read (and enjoyed) all of her novels save the most recent, which I have in paperback in my reading pile so must get to very soon.
Avid Reader: A Life by Robert Gottlieb -- "A spirited and revealing memoir by the celebrated editor of the New Yorker and Knopf, where his list included Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, John le Carré, and Bill Clinton, among others."
A Literary Tour of Italy by Tim Parks -- "contains a selection of the acclaimed novelist and short story writer’s essays on the literature of his adopted country, from Boccaccio and Machiavelli to Moravia and Tabucchi."
Literary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created edited by Laura Miller -- "is a fully illustrated collection that delves deep into the inception, influences, and historical underpinnings of nearly 100 distinctive fictional realms."
Literary London by Eloise Millar and Sam Jordison -- "is a snappy and informative guide that moves through time and genre, from Shakespeare to Amis, from tragedy to chick lit, showing just why—as another famous local writer put it—he who is tired of London is tired of life."
Landmarks by Robert McFarlane -- "For decades, British author Macfarlane has been collecting obscure local words for aspects of landscape, nature, and weather. In this book, he uses his research to explore the literary and linguistic terrain of the British Isles."
Vanity Fair's Writers on Writers edited by Graydon Carter and David Friend -- "collects pieces from Vanity Fair, as well as essays that have never appeared in print, of authors on their favorite writers, including Martin Amis on Saul Bellow, Truman Capote on Willa Cather, and Salman Rushdie on Christopher Hitchens."
Oh, so much good stuff to look forward to. I guess I should stop here. I am sure there will be more later, too . . .