Is it November yet? While the air might be filled with anticipation about a major event on November 5, there is the anticipation that comes of finding something new to read. With October offering an abundance of big titles and notable debuts, November and December might be a bit thin by comparison, but there’s still plenty look forward to. The highlights:
-Modern master Haruki Murakami returns to many of iconic tropes—including Borgesian twists, the Beatles and jazz—in a coming-of-age story with The City and Its Uncertain Walls, out mid-month. Acclaimed author Julia Armfield (Our Wives Under the Sea) reworks a very old story in a near future with Private Rites. In a world where climate change has fueled a growing fervor for arcane, ancient rites, three estranged daughters cope with the death of the father that all hated, but whose cruelty still holds them to a particular purpose even after death. Private Rites is on shelves in early December.
--Memoir readers: two heavy hitters make their way to shelves this year, so big they cannot be contained a one mere volume. Icon Cher presents her recollections in the first part of her eponymous memoir, recounting the first portion of a life and career that has spanned seven decades. In part two of his own life story, Bill Clinton picks up where 2004’s My Life left off. Now Citizen Clinton, Citizen: My Life After the White House offers his thoughts on global events since the end of his presidency, his support for Hillary Clinton during her own political turmoil and ‘a frank recollection of the past.’ Both Cher and Citizen are out Nov. 19.
--Ecologist, Potawatomi citizen, McArthur Genius award winner (and UW alum!) Robin Wall Kimmerer scored a sleeper hit with her 2013 book Braiding Sweetgrass, consistently among the top favorites of library readers, judging by circulation. In The Serviceberry, she considers reciprocity, inter-connectedness and giving in nature, in contrast to the human economy based on scarcity and competition. Publisher’s Weekly calls it ‘an eloquent call to action.’ The Serviceberry is out mid-November.
--Just looking for some great entertainment? Thriller fans will welcome new works from long-time favorites Janet Evanovich, James Patterson, David Baldacci and Craig Johnson. Fantasy readers will see the close of one chapter—Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive closes with Wind and Truth, out December 6—a mere four years after the popular series last installment. And another chapter opens with the publication of Carissa Broadbent’s romantasy series The Songbird & the Heart of Stone, the first in her Shadowborn Duet books. Longtime crime fans are familiar with Philip Margolin’s long running Robin Lockwood series. He takes a break from that series with a standalone, An Insignificant Case, which Booklist notes ‘showcases [Margolin’s] gift for plotting and character design.’ And cozy mystery readers can look forward to more mayhem from The Author’s Guide to Murder, by bestselling trio Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White.
Happy reading!