Anyway, here are some of the books announced as coming out this fall which I'm most excited about.
The Secrets We Kept - Lara Prescott (9/3/19) - This book just came out this week and is already getting a lot of buzz for a debut author, and was also just selected by Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club as the book for September, so it's sure to be a bestseller. It's a historical novel, blurbed by the publisher as follows: "A thrilling tale of secretaries turned spies, of love and duty, and of sacrifice—inspired by the true story of the CIA plot to infiltrate the hearts and minds of Soviet Russia, not with propaganda, but with the greatest love story of the twentieth century: Doctor Zhivago." I'm on the already very long library waitlist for this one.
The Testaments - Margaret Atwood (9/10/19) - I read Margaret Atwood's book "The Handmaid's Tale" back when I was in high school, and have been meaning to read it ever since becoming a fan of the TV adaptation for Hulu. Well, I guess I better hop to it and re-read it now, as Margaret Atwood has at long last written a sequel coming out next week. The sequel is totally independent of the TV show, taking place 15 years after the events of the first book.
The World That We Knew - Alice Hoffman (9/24/19) I have been reading Alice Hoffman's books for nearly 30 years now, with her books ranging from some of my favorites (3 appearances on my annual top ten lists, in 2000, 2001, and 2004) to a few that were huge disappointments. Hoping that this will be one of the good ones! She tends to write either present day magic realism novels or more realistic historical novels, while this one sound like it is a blend of the two. Per the publisher: "In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it’s his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked."
Wayward Son - Rainbow Rowell (9/24/19) - OK, so I LOVE Rainbow Rowell. One of my favorite authors of both young adult and contemporary women's fiction, with two of her books making it on my past top 10 lists (2013 and 2014), and her other 3 books were all in contention as well as I haven't given anything she's written less than 4.5 stars. It's been 4 years since her last novel, so it has been a long wait. Kind of complicated, but this one is a sequel to her book "Carry On," which itself is a spin off of sorts of my favorite of her books, "Fangirl." Basically, the main character of "Fangirl" was a fan of, and wrote fan fiction about, a fictional fantasy series about a character named Simon Snow. In "Carry On," Rainbow Rowell diverged from her usual realistic fiction to bring the world of Simon Snow to life. There are extremely superficial similarities to Harry Potter - Simon is also a super powerful orphan at a magical school - but the book was also totally original. "Wayward Son" picks up the adventures of Simon Snow after he saves the day in the first book. You don't have to read "Fangirl" first to read this one, but definitely should read "Carry On" first if it interests you.
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett (9/24/19) - I love Ann Patchett - another favorite writer whose books have appeared twice on my top 10 lists (in 2002 and 2012). It's been 3 years since her last book. Sounds like it will be an interesting family saga, and one that must be hard to blurb as the publisher's description is rather long. But I love Ann Patchett's writing so this is one of those books I would read regardless of what it was about.
Royal Holiday - Jasmine Guillory (10/1/19) - I just discovered Jasmine Guillory this year and tore through her first 3 books - super fun chick lit/romance-y books. They're not sequels to each other strictly speaking, but the characters reappear throughout the books. Maddie made her first appearance as a side character in the first book, "The Wedding Date," and got to be the main character in the third book, "The Wedding Party" - well, this book is centered on Maddie's mother. So that should also be a fun change, to focus on an older character instead of people in their 20s.
The Giver of Stars - Jojo Moyes (10/8/19) - Jojo Moyes is another of my favorite writers of contemporary women's fiction. Her publisher tricked me earlier this year as I included "The Peacock Emporium" on my list of anticipated books of 2019, but it turned out that it was not a new books but one of her older books from before she became famous in the US with "Me Before You" that was being published in the US for the first time, and sadly her older books are just not quite as good. Luckily, she has an actual new book coming out next month! She is another author I will read no matter what she writes, but this one sounds interesting and rather different for her - a historical novel set in depression era Kentucky about women working for a travelling library.
The Forbidden Stars - Tim Pratt (10/8/19) Lest you think my taste is not diverse, let's throw a science fiction novel by a male author onto this list. ;) This is the third book in a contemporary science fiction trilogy in the classic space opera mold, about a ragtag crew in the far future and their encounters with an alien threat. I really enjoyed the first two books so I'm looking forward to this one.
The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell (11/5/19) - I've only read two of Lisa Jewell's books so far but really enjoyed both and looking forward to catching up on her older ones, as she seems to be a writer of interesting suspense novels with well developed characters. Her latest will be published in the US in November and sounds right up my alley. Per the publisher, on her 25th birthday, main character Liby "learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. ... Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone." Sounds like the kind of psychological suspense that will keep me up at night!
The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern (11/5/19) - I absolutely adored Erin Morgenstern's first book, "The Night Circus," which was on my 2012 top 10 favorites list. But in the years since, she hasn't published anything. This book is not a sequel but a totally separate standalone. I can't lie, the description for this one sounds a bit wacky and impossible to summarize and I don't know if I would have been drawn to it without her name attached to it. But I am willing to give her a chance to hopefully once again draw me into a beautifully written imaginary world.
The Confession Club - Elizabeth Berg (11/19/19) - This is the third book Elizabeth Berg has written about a quirky group of interrelated characters living in the same town in Missouri. I loved the first two ("The Story of Arthur Truluv" and "Night of Miracles") so I'm looking forward to revisiting the characters again.
Meg and Jo - Virginia Kantra (12/3/19) - This sounds so cute - sort of a modern re-telling of Little Women set in the 21st century, about 4 grownup March sisters of course named Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth. I loved Little Women as a kid, and I generally enjoy modern retellings of older books, so looking forward to checking this one out.
The Wicked Redhead - Beatriz Williams (12/10/19) - Beatriz Williams is one of my favorite historical fiction authors and a must read author I'm trying to catch up on. But she makes catching up hard because she keeps churning out new books! Her most recent book, "Golden Country," just came out in July, but she already has another book lined up for publication in December! This book is a direct sequel to "The Wicked City," which is one of her least read books according to Goodreads, but one of my favorites of hers. Her books often have characters reappear in small appearances between books, but this is the first one where both of the POV characters will be the same as in a previous book - Ella in 1998 and Gin in 1924, just like in "The Wicked City."
Think I'll get through all of these by the end of the year? Only time will tell!
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