Or, The Six Books I Am Most Excited to Read (BEA EDITION!)
The Books from BEA I Am Most Excited About!
Shelter by Harlan Coben
Mickey Bolitar’s year can’t get much worse. After witnessing his father’s death and sending his mom to rehab, he’s forced to live with his estranged uncle Myron and switch high schools.
A new school comes with new friends and new enemies, and lucky for Mickey, it also comes with a great new girlfriend, Ashley. For a while, it seems like Mickey’s train-wreck of a life is finally improving – until Ashley vanishes without a trace. Unwilling to let another person walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley’s trail into a seedy underworld that reveals that this seemingly sweet, shy girl isn’t who she claimed to be. And neither was Mickey’s father. Soon, Mickey learns about a conspiracy so shocking that it makes high school drama seem like a luxury – and leaves him questioning everything about the life he thought he knew.
First introduced to readers in Harlan Coben’s latest adult novel, Live Wire, Mickey Bolitar is as quick-witted and clever as his uncle Myron, and eager to go to any length to save the people he cares about. With this new series, Coben introduces an entirely new generation of fans to the masterful plotting and wry humor that have made him an award-winning, internationally bestselling, and beloved author. (via Goodreads)
I actually read this one already–on the train ride home from New York–and I finished it in about two and a half hours. Shelter was the book I was most excited about pre-BEA, and I’m pleased to say that it was everything I wanted (except for one tiny absence of a character from the Myron books, but what are you going to do). If you love Myron Bolitar, or if you just like well-written, witty mysteries, you’ll enjoy Shelter.
RELEASE DATE: 9/6/2011
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson:
The day Louisiana teenager Rory Deveaux arrives in London marks a memorable occasion. For Rory, it’s the start of a new life at a London boarding school. But for many, this will be remembered as the day a series of brutal murders broke out across the city, gruesome crimes mimicking the horrific Jack the Ripper events of more than a century ago.
Soon “Rippermania” takes hold of modern-day London, and the police are left with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. Rory spotted the man police believe to be the prime suspect. But she is the only one who saw him. Even her roommate, who was walking with her at the time, didn’t notice the mysterious man. So why can only Rory see him? And more urgently, why has Rory become his next target? In this edge-of-your-seat thriller, full of suspense, humor, and romance, Rory will learn the truth about the secret ghost police of London and discover her own shocking abilities. (via Amazon)
I started reading Maureen Johnson’s books last year in order to prepare(/know who she was) for her speech at the Book Blogger Convention. I don’t read much YA, but I love how smart her books are. I’m excited to see what she does with the interesting premise for The Name of the Star.
RELEASE DATE: 9/29/2011
The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Potzsch:
A historical thriller set in Germany, 1660: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play in his small Bavarian town. Whispers and dark memories of witch trials and the women burned at the stake just seventy years earlier still haunt the streets of Schongau. When more children disappear and an orphan boy is found dead—marked by the same tattoo—the mounting hysteria threatens to erupt into chaos.
Before the unrest forces him to torture and execute the very woman who aided in the birth of his children, Jakob must unravel the truth. With the help of his clever daughter, Magdelena, and Simon, the university-educated son of the town’s physician, Jakob discovers that a devil is indeed loose in Schongau. But it may be too late to prevent bloodshed.
A brilliantly detailed, fast-paced historical thriller, The Hangman’s Daughter is the first novel from German television screenwriter Oliver Pötzsch, a descendent of the Kuisls, a famous Bavarian executioner clan. (via Goodreads)
I picked this one up by luck; I was walking past the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt booth and the cover caught my eye. Then the summary sounded super interesting, and thennn I decided it should be mine.
RELEASE DATE: 8/2/2011
A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski:
Intellectually dynamic and endlessly provocative, A Queer History of the United States is more than a “who’s who” of queer history: it is a book that radically challenges how we understand American history. Drawing upon primary documents, literature, and cultural histories, noted scholar and activist Michael Bronski charts the breadth of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, from 1492 to the 1990s, and has written a testament to how the LGBT experience has profoundly shaped our country, culture, and history.
At heart, A Queer History of the United States is simply about American history. It is a book that will matter both to LGBT people and heterosexuals. This engrossing and revelatory history will make readers appreciate just how queer America really is. (via Goodreads)
The very nice people at Beacon Press handed me a copy of this after I kind of fan-girled out about their books, and I AM SO HAPPY. I’m going to read it as soon as I finish the books I’m reading right now. So. Excited.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
Sister Citizen by Melissa Harris Perry:
In this groundbreaking book, Melissa V. Harris-Perry uses multiple methods of inquiry, including literary analysis, political theory, focus groups, surveys, and experimental research, to understand more deeply black women’s political and emotional responses to pervasive negative race and gender images. Not a traditional political science work concerned with office-seeking, voting, or ideology, Sister Citizen instead explores how African American women understand themselves as citizens and what they expect from political organizing. Harris-Perry shows that the shared struggle to preserve an authentic self and secure recognition as a citizen links together black women in America, from the anonymous survivors of Hurricane Katrina to the current First Lady of the United States. (via Goodreads)
Melissa Harris Perry is a frequent contributer on MSNBC and I always look forward to her super smart commentary. I didn’t know ARCs of her new book were going to be at BEA, and when I walked past a pile of them in the Yale Press booth I was beyond thrilled. I may have happy danced.
RELEASE DATE: 9/2011
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta:
What if the Rapture happened and you got left behind? Or what if it wasn’t the Rapture at all, but something murkier, a burst of mysterious, apparently random disappearances that shattered the world in a single moment, dividing history into Before and After, leaving no one unscathed? How would you rebuild your life in the wake of such a devastating event?
This is the question confronting the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, a formerly comfortable suburban community that lost over a hundred people in the Sudden Departure. Kevin Garvey, the new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized neighbors, even as his own family falls apart. His wife, Laurie, has left him to enlist in the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence but haunt the streets of town as “living reminders” of God’s judgment. His son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet by the name of Holy Wayne. Only his teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she’s definitely not the sweet A student she used to be.
Through the prism of a single family, Perrotta illuminates a familiar America made strange by grief and apocalyptic anxiety. The Leftovers is a powerful and deeply moving book about people struggling to hold onto a belief in their own futures. (via Goodreads)
I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Perrotta (one of the nicest guys around) at BEA and he kind of charmed my socks off. Also this book sounds fantastic, so there’s that, too.
RELEASE DATE: 8/30/2011
Is anyone else excited about any of these tites? What’s your #1 MOST EXCITING UPCOMING release?
Finally, I’m reminded of a story my dad told me of leaving a can of food too close to a kerosene lamp and having it explode, so I would make a bomb out of it as well.
