21 new titles to get cozy with this week.
Fall may be here, but October sure is coming in hot with these new books—including titles from Tracy K. Smith, David Sedaris, Miriam Toews, Eugene Lim, Claire Vaye Watkins, and (oh, yes) Jonathan Franzen.
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Jonathan Franzen, Crossroads
(FSG)
“His ambition in this novel is not only to mirror society, but to return the individual reader to themselves, to grind a lens in which the major questions structuring our single lives on Earth retain their focus and integrity.”
–Bookforum
Claire Vaye Watkins, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
(Riverhead)
“While reading this funny, deeply searching, and innovative novel, what surfaces is the pursuit of freedom as well as the act of recovering a fractured self … Watkins’s structurally textured novel revels in a certain chaos that mimics the inner life of its protagonist.”
–The Boston Globe
Tracy K. Smith, Such Color
(Graywolf)
“Smith provides sensuous, lyrical narratives with oracular depth. Both timeless and urgent, this serves as a humbling and invigorating reawakening from sorrow and apathy.”
–Publishers Weekly
David Sedaris, A Carnival of Snackery
(Little, Brown)
“Sedaris’ shrewdly sketched world travelogue, hilarious anecdotes, and frank reflections on loved ones, and life’s myriad absurdities and cruelties major and minor, make for a delectably sardonic, rueful, and provocative chronicle.”
–Booklist
Eugene Lim, Search History
(Coffee House Press)
“Lim’s ability to balance the fantastical with the heartfelt is what ultimately makes this book resonate … Lim brings together the mundane and the extraordinary to powerful effect.”
–Kirkus
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, My Monticello
(Henry Holt)
“Johnson wrestles with questions of racial identity, post-racial society, and the legacies of slavery in her masterly debut collection … This incandescent work speaks not just to the moment, but to history.”
–Publishers Weekly
Miriam Toews, Fight Night
(Bloomsbury)
“It’s impossible as you read this novel to not compare the action and characters with Toews’ real world, and yet at the same time, you become so sucked into this fictional world that you forget everything else.”
–Globe and Mail
Stanley Tucci, Taste
(Gallery Books)
“[A] gastronome’s delight. It has piquant surprises tucked inside and will leave readers both sated and wanting more.”
–BookPage
Dave Grohl, The Storyteller
(Dey Street Books)
“Famously personable, Grohl is an engaging raconteur, albeit one with a spectacularly potty mouth.”
–The Guardian
Fiona Hill, There Is Nothing For You Here
(Mariner)
“When recounting her life, Hill is a lucid writer, delivering her reminiscences in a vivid and wry style.”
–The New York Times
Jen Winston, Greedy
(Atria)
” In playfully queering the coming-of-age story, Winston has written something wholly original, and entirely delightful.”
–Publishers Weekly
Daniel de Vise, King of the Blues
(Grove Press)
“Though de Visé ploughs through a seemingly endless series of King’s records, performances, love affairs, and gambling-induced IRS troubles, the narrative remains engaging. The book expertly interweaves King’s music career into the U.S. social fabric, especially the civil rights movement.”
–Library Journal
A.L. Snijders, tr. Lydia Davis, Night Train
(New Directions)
“One has a feeling, at the end of each sketch, most of which fit on one page, that Snijders has left nothing unsaid, summing up each with a perfect declaration.”
–Publishers Weekly
Sarah Ruhl, Smile
(Simon & Schuster)
“Smile is at once an illness narrative, a meditation on smiling as cultural practice and symbol, and a compelling, behind-the-scenes look at the life of a playwright and mother.”
–Shelf Awareness
Lucy Corin, The Swank Hotel
(Graywolf)
“Delightfully askew, Corin’s work offers a memorable exploration of how a loved one’s mental illness can impact an individual’s outlook.”
–Publishers Weekly
Carole Angier, Speak, Silence
(Bloomsbury)
“Every serious reader of Sebald’s will find much of value here.”
–Kirkus
Chibundu Onuzo, Sankofa
(Catapult)
“Spellbinding … Onuzu’s spare style elegantly cuts to the core of her themes. The balancing of Anna’s soul-searching with her thrilling discoveries makes for a satisfying endeavor.”
–Publishers Weekly
Amor Towles, The Lincoln Highway
(Viking)
“Towles continues to transport readers, immersing them just as completely in the adventures of the Watson brothers he did in the seemingly claustrophobic lives of Count Rostov and his young sidekick … Packed with drama.”
–BookPage
Nadia Wassef, Shelf Life
(FSG)
“From a visionary who is passionate about the written word, Wassef’s memoir is both an intimate reckoning with motherhood, marriage and feminism and a thoughtful meditation on Egyptian literary culture and history.”
–Shelf Awareness
Hugo Vickers, Malice in Wonderland
(Pegasus Books)
“Mr. Vickers is the doyen of a particular kind of biography. He has a unique vantage on a rarified social terrain where privilege meets merit, and royalty and aristocracy slum it with writers and artists.”
–The Wall Street Journal
Curtis Bunn, Michael H. Cottman, Patrice Gaines, Nick Charles, Keith Harriston, Say Their Names
(Grand Central)
“[An] accessible introduction to the latest chapter in the ongoing struggle for civil rights in America.”
–Publishers Weekly
