What's just out or coming soon that's got you excited? v. 2.0

Same topic, new thread—what are you wish listing or pre-ordering or just interested in?

Double post... I'll think of something better to say later.

Donahue’s play version of Room was expected to open in March. Covid hit our shores quite a bit before it hit New York and.. the play never went on but the poster indicated the the mother and son would be played by actors of colour. As the book is so beloved,I’m sure it will get produced one day. They were already well on their way in rehearsals. Poor young child actor-he’ll probably be too big to play it next time around.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is going to be my escape from reality book in September.

Just found out about the imminent release of What Happens at Night by Peter Cameron.
https://www.brooklinebooksmith-shop.com/book/9781948226967

Sorry about the clumsy link. Although it's nice to post bookstores that you love.

I've had the Peter Cameron preordered FOR MONTHS -- it won't ship until the 4th though because Bookshop doesn't quiiiiite get it right with that delivery-on-the-release-date thing. I think it sounds like it's in the Andorra vein.

There's a terrific wave of short story collections happening now.
No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories / Jayant Kaikini
Why I Don't Write and Other Stories / Susan Minot
Cool for America / Andrew Martin

Fantastic! Thanks for the list!

I first found out about Susan Minot in the early eighties when she had a great story published in Grand Street about her family. She turned this into a collection of linked stories that was a disaster,hugely boring. Grand Street was a great literary journal and one of the editors was Deborah Treisman before she became Deborah Treisman.

I love Monkeys (which is what I assume the linked collection was); it's the reason I've stayed a Minot fan over the years -- but I don't think she's a novelist, so sometimes it's been trying.

Yes it was Monkeys,maybe it was the time I read it and I should try it again.

I went to high school with one of Susan Minot's brothers, so the one time I met her I was mostly interested in getting her to promise that she'd say hi to him for me (I bet she didn't). I remember Monkeys being a mid-80s darling but I never read it. I do have a galley of her newest, Why I Don't Write: And Other Stories, so we'll see.

Do you know which of the monkeys was the brother?

I don't really follow new books much at all, but I'm really becoming a Jeff VanderMeer fanboy, and wanna read his new book that came out last month, "A Peculiar Peril."

>14 alans: No idea... I haven't read the book, nor am I quite sure where he is in the birth lineup. Someday I'll read it just to see if I can figure that out.

>15 cloudshipsinger: The only book I've read of VanderMeer's is Borne, which may be everyone's starter Jeff V. I'd read more—I'm not a huge fantastical-type sf person, so for that one to keep me engrossed all the way through is a respectable achievement.

oh yes......THE BOY IN THE FIELD
By Margot Livesey

Is this the first from her in a while?

I just read that for review. She is such a fabulous writer and I won't discourage anyone from reading her but it feels very slight, esp for right now. It felt very...……..unengaged.

https://bookpage.com/reviews/25324-margot-livesey-boy-field-fiction#.XzQOUyhKgdU

liked your review of it; still interested but might wait till it appears at my indie so I can read a bit of it, see what I think. Thanks

I can’t say I’m excited about this but a university press is coming out with a collection of scholarly essays on the history of MAD magazine. I doubt anyone here would not agree that MAD was a cultural phenomena in its day but an academic study? I tried to read a recent academic study of The New Yorker and I couldn’t make it past the first page.
It’s good to know that university professors have something new to write about. Do we need another study about Shakespeare or Dickens?

I'd read at least a little bit of that, alan, just to see what people chose to focus on. I mean, there's a lot happening in MAD Magazine, and it was absolutely formative for several generations of smartass kids and young adults. Who knows, maybe there are some interesting takes. That said, academic writing style bores the living crap out of me, so I probably wouldn't make it very far.

I just checked my list to see what I had marked for Sept/Oct and lots and lots coming --

new David Leavitt, the of-the-moment titled Shelter in Place
the new Robinson, Jack
The Talented Miss Farwell, which has been on my radar for a while for some reason
The Look of the Book: Jackets, Covers, and Art at the Edges of Literature by Peter Mendelsund

but the one that has me the most excited is Zola's Doctor Pascal, which Oxford World Classics is finally putting out -- it's the only one of the 20-book Rougon/Macquart cycle they didn't have out in a new or recent translation and I was very worried I was going to have to - gasp - read one with a mismatched cover when I got to it.

1A new Ursula Hegi! THE PATRON SAINT OF PREGNANT GIRLS I havent read anything from her in a while, looking forward to this

New Jane Smiley coming in December: Perestroika in Paris. It's told by a horse -- a trick she pulled off quite successfully for part of Horse Heaven.

>25 DG_Strong: Huh. On paper that sounds like it would be so... awful. But I might bite.

I get a lot of e-galleys, which is both good in that I'm able to read stuff early (if and when I actually get to it), but also takes a little of that new-book excitement out of the equation. But now I'm sorely missing our LJ offices and the opportunity to sift through the giveaway shelves or walk by review editors' desk and longingly finger some pretty book and ask, "Ohhhh... is anyone reviewing this yet?" (The two good answers being, "No, do you want to?" or "Yes, but I think I have an extra copy somewhere—let me check."

Because I'm dying to get my hands on the NYRB Trots and Bonnie compilation. I grew up on National Lampoon (it was the '70s—no one paid attention to what I was reading) and absolutely loved this strip by Shary Flenniken, and used to shamelessly rip off her style in my own drawings as a kid. It's out April 2021... I guess that gives me some time to do my shameless "Is anyone reviewing this" bit by email.

>26 lisapeet: I thiiiink it's told by a horse anyway. I know the horse is the main character. But there are chapters in Horse Heaven where she does it and it's my favorite of her books. Also, I think a dog and a crow talk. It IS a fairy tale sort of thing, I think.

"a dog and a crow talk" -- I'm sold.

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline. Definitely not for everyone. I loved Ready Player One but was disappointed by his second book, Armada.

!!!!!!! I heard he was going to try this, didn't realize its coming out! I liked RP1, tho I didn't get a lot of his references/ Interested how he does with this.

a new garganus!!!

am I the only one here?

Test

My library already has the new Garganus. Never read him.

First got hooked with him in The oldest living confederate widow tells all Fantastic writing, plot and so much history one of my all time fav historical fiction novels. Then moved on to his short story collections

>34 alans: , >35 cindydavid4: I've attended/produced A LOT of author interviews over the past year (over 50!) and the one we just did a couple of weeks ago with Wiley Cash interviewing Allan Gurganus was my favorite. I kept scribbling down quotes, thinking, oh I want to remember that!.

https://youtu.be/X920jpLTRNg

thanks niki, I'll be sure to watch that!

Great want to watch that, both Wiley and Gurganus interest me. Wasn’t Gurganas Cheever’s secret lover?

Just read my first Gurganus story from last spring about a country dr. During a plague. Great introduction to his work.

>39 alans: yup that was in the new yorker, I think just at the start where people were becoming more aware. I can't remember, was that based on a true story? regardless an excellent read.

I tried listening to this and just too painful - first the interviewer with over use of uh and um, and repeating the same word in one sentence three times and then repeating the sentence. Then when garganus started speaking I realized it was the same . I tried the captioning but it didn't help. Neither were able to get to the point. I am interested in his work so maybe I'll just read some about his books.

I think my fav story, way back in his first collection, about a guy who's friend has died and he is trying to clean out his house when he finds a large collection of dildoes. Hilarious, yet really sad

BTW I was trying to find the title of the story when suddenly Im seeing ads all over the place for dildoes. Um.......sometimes I really do hate Google

>41 cindydavid4: The last time I saw Gurganus speak it was in person at a writers conference four or five years ago. He had a lot of good things to say about writing, but he pissed off half the crowd because towards the end of his talk he segued into politics and harangued everyone for not doing enough to oppose the agenda of the Republican-led state legislature. I found it sort of funny but people walked out.

I was a little concerned about a repeat, but Gurganus kept all that to the backstage. His health is clearly failing, and I thought there was an aura of looking towards his legacy in what he chose to speak about. There were a bunch of writing program students from UNC Asheville attending who really loved what he had to say.

I keep trying to find the time to turn the transcript into an "interview" for print -- without the ums and uhs! -- because it was just so interesting.

I secretly love Plays Well with Others the best of all the Gurganus stuff. But it could not be more of a hairpin from Oldest Living Confederate Widow if it tried.

He taught Ann Patchett and she does not shy away from crediting him with almost everything.

>42 southernbooklady: His health is clearly failing

I wondered if he had parkinsons, but yes he's not well. Id love to see a transcript of that.

>43 DG_Strong: I did not realize that; love her books

I really liked that story too, alan.

I got the sense he might have Parkinson’s.

I saw Gurganus do the keynote at an Outwrite Gay and Lesbian Writers's Conf in the mid-90s. He was ribald, hilarious, and very political. Everyone loved him.

I can't recall the details, but I think it was here, in the early Elizabeth & Gary Book Balloon Days, that I finally gave the YA Books genre a try. I still maintain that genre can be very hit or miss, but when it's as good as Patrick Ness' Chaos Walking, it's as good as anything out there. I freakin' *loved* those books. Never would've guessed a talking dog would become one of the most unforgettable literary voices ever.

They've adapted the first volume into a film with Mads Mikkelsen, David Oyelowo, Demián Bichir, Ray McKinnon, Daisy Ridley (as Viola), and Tom Holland (as Todd). I don't know who's been cast as the voice of Manchee (Todd's *awesome* dog), but I'm hoping they pull it off because he's one of the best characters created in any genre.

Anyway. That's what's coming out soon that's got me excited.

Chaos Walking 1

Chaos Walking 2

New Russell Banks novel just released! Foregone

Oh, jeez, Nancy. That's so up my alley. Anything about memory fascinates me, plus I was a kid living in SE Asia during the VietNam conflict. So there's that, too. I'm going to put that on hold at the library. Thanks.

Russell Banks is great.

You're welcome, Pat. Yes, Russell Banks is great. My favorite of his is The Darling.

Did anyone else read the NYT book review of The Ravine?

The review itself is beautifully written, I think, and the story of how the author came to write it is fascinating. I don't usually seek out Holocaust literature, but this one is calling to me. It is, mercifully, only 272 pages.

Will check it out. Thanks!
I read The Painted Bird in my late teens and it freaked me out.

Well-written, thoughtful reviews are becoming an endangered species. I'm off to read it now.

I couldn’t find the review of The Ravine nor an Amazon entry. Will try again.

Alan, I linked them in my original post. Click on “book review”

Thanks,I finally found it.

Not new, but am very excited about a book I'd been wanting for decades. in 2000 we took a month in italy. On the way I was reading sixteen pleasures about the flood of 1966 . This was all new to me, and I was fascinated and wanted to know more about the history. So when we were in Florence bookstores and museums asking for a book about this. No one had any idea what I was talking about (and my friend was fluent in Italian) fast forward to yesterday, was at my local indie looking the staff picks and saw dark waters: Art, Disaster, and Redemption in Florence. Unfortunatly they id not have it so I ordered it. I am soooo excited! Cant wait to read it

Hi Lisa,is Filthy Animals on your radar?

>60 alans: It is, and I have an e-galley. Have you read it?

No,but it is getting lots of great buzz.

I saw today that Brian Malloy -- who was a TTer and then a verrrry early Readervillian (though he didn't stick with Rville long, I don't think) has a new book (well, since May): After Francesco.

Bewilderment by Richard Powers.

I can't describe how excited I am by this book's premise. It pushes so many buttons for me: I'm a big fan of the author and own all his books in 1st Ed. form. (Which means it'll be an exception to my book purchasing restriction), as a retired CNRN, it hits smack on to my specialized area of neurosurgery/neurology, single parenting, the search for life outside our universe, etc., and because Powers' writing has gotten so much better with age.

As a trivia side note, he also attended the same International School that I did in Bangkok, Thailand, although we were a couple of years apart.

I haven't seen so wide a range of reviews for a book in quite a long time as I have about Bewilderment. So a firsthand report is helpful!

Yeah, it seems super polarizing. It's not super high on my list, but it's there.

I just got an e-galley of Patrick Radden Keefe's new book, Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks, and I am SO ready for it (though I have a couple other books on the pile ahead of it). I loved his last two, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland and Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, and absolutely admire how he walks the tightrope between good journalism and compelling writing... not always an easy thing.

>67 lisapeet: I'm looking forward to that, Lisa. I just finished Empire of Pain, which I liked nearly as much as Say Nothing.

He’s such a great writer. I’ve never written a fan letter before but when his article which was turned into the book appeared ,Say Nothing,I was so moved that I wrote to him. He wrote back,just the best writer.

Sybil & Cyril: Cutting Through Time by Jenny Uglow

In 1922, Cyril Edward Power, a fifty-year-old architect, left his family to live and work with Sybil Andrews, who was twenty-six years his junior. They would be together for twenty years. Both became famous for their dynamic, modernist linocuts. Yet at the same time they looked back to medieval myths and early music, to country ways disappearing from sight.

Sybil & Cyril traces their struggles and triumphs, following them from Suffolk to London, from the New Forest to Vancouver Island, and bringing to life their world of Futurists, Surrealists and pioneering abstraction.

I have favorite writers whose books I'll buy in hardcover because I can't wait for the paperback. Then there are writers like Jenny Uglow, whose books not only can't I wait for the paperback, I can't even wait for the American edition.

Oooh oooh oooh. She’s one of my automatic yes writers too—I think the last one of hers I read was the Edward Lear bio, which was long but fascinating.

Me too. I'll reading anything Uglow.

I think of Uglow as a kind of "biographer of the 18th century" but of course, Lear is solidly of the following one. If you haven't read it, her book The Pinecone, about the self-taught architect Mary Losh (also early 19th century) is a surprise and a delight.

>73 southernbooklady: I haven't read it, but it's on my wish list now. And I really need to get a copy of Nature's Engraver too.

Not buying it 'cause it's $161, but it definitely has me excited. Look how beautiful!

A 900-Page Book Catalogs Hundreds of Medicinal Plants through Colorful Renaissance-Era Woodcuts

>75 lisapeet: Of course it is Taschen. No one does big, beautiful, slightly-pornographic art books like they do!

Sometimes they are more than just slightly pornographic.

Oh, hands-down the thing I am gooped and betrivvled about the most is the new Karen Joy Fowler: Booth, due this Tuesday. I can't believe it's been eight years since We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

Wow, that's good news, DG. I didn't even know she had a new book coming. That's going on the list.

Two new Cormac McCarthys coming: The Passenger on 10/25 and Stella Maris on 11/22. Both in a boxed set on 12/6. The little touchstone thingie gives the same link for both books.

Young Mungo - the new novel from Shuggie Bain author Douglas Stuart - on my doorstep this Tuesday.

>81 DG_Strong: Oh! Thanks for the heads-up.

SOOO jealous!

Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance: A Novel by John Waters - his first novel!

>84 DG_Strong: Thank you! I'm now first in line at my library.

Did we know there was a new Katherine "Geek Love" Dunn novel coming out? I mean, she's dead and it's gone unpublished for fifty years but still. Toad

I did know! And even though those "discovered" posthumous novels are pretty much always awful, I'm still going to read it.

Coming in September:

Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self by the incomparable Andrea Wulf.
https://bookshop.org/books/magnificent-rebels-the-first-romantics-and-the-invent...

Mom and I once did an entire tour of presidential gardens based on her book Founding Gardeners. And her biography of Alexander von Humboldt is one of the best books I've ever read.

>88 southernbooklady: Oooh oooh oooh.

>88 southernbooklady: I want that. Thanks for the alert.

My husband read Founding Gardeners and when he turned 50, we planned a visit to presidential homes and gardeners in the Virginia area. Fantastic trip.

Today the new biography of Terry Pratchett, which he was working on before he passed, is coming out today. Cannot wait to get my hands on it! " life in footnotes" touchstone is wrong"

our missing hearts haved loved everything from author celeste ng, Im hoping that I will love this one too'

Sneaking up on me is the news of a new Jane Smiley - A Dangerous Business. About prostitutes during the California Gold Rush. Has ever a more DG sentence been typed? If they befriend some Chinese railway builders, I'll be SET FOR LIFE.

Upcoming Books for 2023

The best new books to kick off 2023
Plus a few tips and tricks for reading more this year.: https://www.inquirer.com/arts/books/top-books-january-2023-20221228.html

Most Anticipated Books of 2023: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/coming-soon/

The Book Releases of 2023 We're Most Looking Forward To: https://www.southernliving.com/new-books-2023-6890302

The science fiction and fantasy books we’re excited for in 2023: https://www.polygon.com/23546367/new-books-science-fiction-fantasy-2023

The Most Anticipated Mystery and Thriller Books of 2023: https://www.pastemagazine.com/books/lists/most-anticipated-mystery-thriller-book...

Most Anticipated YA Books of 2023: https://shereads.com/most-anticipated-ya-books-2023/

What to Read in 2023: https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/interactive/2023/books-preview-2023/

67 of the Best and Most Anticipated Books of 2023: https://www.elle.com/culture/books/g42156598/best-books-of-2023/

41 new books we can't wait to read in 2023: https://www.today.com/popculture/best-new-books-2023-t272941

23 Brilliant New Books For 2023 To Get Your Reading List Started: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/best-new-books-of-2023_uk_639b4a64e4b0169...

22 books we're looking forward to in 2023: https://www.salon.com/2023/01/01/best-books-2023/

30 Indie Books to Look Out for in Early 2023: https://independentbookreview.com/2022/11/28/indie-books-early-2023/

Meet the 10 best new novelists for 2023: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/08/meet-the-10-best-new-novelists-for...

The Definitive Guide To All The Upcoming Books Becoming Movies In 2023: https://www.perpetualpageturner.com/books-becoming-movies-upcoming/

10 TV Series Based Off of Books Coming This Year in 2023: https://collider.com/upcoming-tv-adaptations-2023/

Cathleen Schine, Künstlers in Paradise

YES!!!

Maybe I'm being over-optimistic, but this year will see new books by some of the finest writers we've the privilege to read (Cormac McCarthy, Sebastian Barry to name two). Hopefully, these quality releases will motivate a rejuvenation of posts 'round these here parts. It seems like a very long time since I've been this excited about upcoming reads.

Oooo new Patrick deWitt. The Librarianist.

Oh boy, that's a click for me. I was very disappointed in Under Major Domo, but I'm a big fan of his other books. Plus, that's a cool cover.

Yes, Under Major Domo was his dud, I think.

Hear to tell you that the new Zadie Smith The Fraud is a good 'un. I think in part it's about Trump but in a very sly way - the same way Matrix is.

I’m really looking forward to the upcoming Emma Donahue Learned by Heart which comes out in two weeks. I have a pre-order at audible. She comes out with a new book almost every year. I’m really curious to see if this one will be long-listed for the Giller prize next month. Her novel Pull of the Stars is exceptional except for the ending which is dreadful and silly. The research she did in that novel is incredible.

I can’t wait to read Barbara Streisand’s 940 page memoir. I’m sure she will read the audio book and it will be a great treat.

Can you imagine being the poor audio engineer while Barbra demanded to do fifty thousand retakes of her own self reading?

DG, do you really plan on reading this?

I don’t know if anybody else here listens to the fabulous podcast You Must Remember This. There is an episode about the filming of A Star is Born , when she was with Jon Peters. It is great.

My birthday's tomorrow - thanks in advance! Bring No Clothes.

>106 karenwall: I think it'll be a flip-through for me. I do think she's a bit taste-free (and a terrible judge and editor of her own work) but if you think I'm going to ignore 900+ pages of self-indulgence about things like how she convinced Sondheim to rewrite and "improve" his songs for her, well, you don't know me very well. I LOVE HUBRIS.

>108 DG_Strong: Heh.

>107 laurenbufferd: Ooh. My birthday's in May, so that's plenty of time.

A new Maupin; yes please. Mona of the Manor.

Its not new, but I'm pretty psyched about this reissue, soon to be published across the pond.
Williams' Wife. https://www.boilerhouse.press/product-page/william-s-wife-by-gertrude-trevelyan?...

Lucky: A Novel. Look, I am most definitely Team Jane Smiley but it's interesting she doesn't get flak for churning them out like, say, Joyce Carol Oates does.

Lauren, this one brushes up against some of your interests.

Oh la, that does look appealing.

Didn't she also have a book out in the last 10 years called Some Luck? The first in a trilogy... it was good, but I haven't read the other two. And then half her books have horses on the cover, so no wonder I'm confused. But that one looks good, so I'll keep my eye out for it.

>115 lisapeet: Yes, Some Luck was the first in the 100 Years Trilogy, followed by Early Warning and Golden Age. Lauren read them all! I read the first two. It was an interesting idea; there's basically a chapter for each year over a century, spread out over three books. One family that gets increasingly sprawling and complicated. But there's something about that structure that took the tension out of it for me, though Lauren might disagree.

I still think Smiley is the 100% Real Deal, though she said once that her goal was to write one of every kind of book or something: a mystery, a trilogy, an epic, blah blah blah, which I dunno, that seems show-offy. But she gets a lifetime pass for her very early two-novella book Ordinary Love and Good Will, which is still one of the best books I've ever read.

The second two in that 100 Years Trilogy are very handsome... maybe I'll get to them, because I know I liked the first. I haven't read Ordinary Love and Good Will, but I'm noting it—and NYPL's got the ebook, so that works for me.

I loved Duplicate Keys - super early Smiley.

>118 laurenbufferd: Me too.

This is the first in many years that every single book shortlisted for The Booker Prize appeals to me. I'm going to make an effort to read them all.

Some of the books I'm hoping to read in 2024:

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

Run to the Western Shore by Tim Pears

James by Percival Everett

The Tower by Flora Carr

I Am Rome by Santiago Posteguillo

Might be time for a new thread, eh?