Thursday, November 17, 2016

What's Hot in Early 2017

Next year is going to be a great one for books.

As we start to wind down 2016 and look towards 2017, certainly a lot of big changes are on the horizon, but one thing that stays the same is the exciting winter book season. Winter is the best time to read- nothing beats curling up with a hot cocoa or tea and a blanket while you dive into that great new book.

Here are some I'm looking forward to in the coming months.

Ill Will, by Dan Chaon. I finished reading this already and let me tell you, it's hot. Like, keep you up all night hot. If you've read him before I don't have to tell you because you already know. But if you're new to Chaon's work, you'll love his literary brand of high-density suspense. Look for it in March from Scribner.


On the more commercial side, there's Peter Swanson's Her Every Fear,  a genuinely scary whodunit which will have you locked in place too. Releases in January from William Morrow.


The Impossible Fairy Tale, by Han Yujoo, bills itself as "a fresh and terrifying exploration of the ethics of art making and of the stinging consequences of neglect." It takes place in a school where there is one child who seems to go unnoticed until she starts editing her classmates' work. I haven't read this one yet but I am really looking forward to it. It comes out March 7 from Graywolf Press.

Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga has a new novel, The Selection Day, coming out in January. I am a fan for life of his after The White Tiger. His new book takes place in Mumbai and focuses on a 14 year old talented cricket player named Manjunath whose life changes when he meets someone even better than himself, an older boy whose rival is Manjunath's brother. Coming from Scribner.

I'm reading Sana Krasikov's first full length novel, The Patriots, now, and it's a winner. It's about several generations of a Jewish family traveling back and forth from Russia and America. Her writing just sparkles. It releases in January from Spiegel & Grau.

Catriona Lally's Eggshells comes out in January. It's a fun and moving story about an Irish woman who longs to return to the world from which she believes she came, the world of fairies. From Melville House.

Also of interest is Val Emmich's The Reminders, about two misfits, one who remembers everything and one who wants to destroy every memory and what happens when they join forces to win a songwriting competition. It comes out May 30 from Little, Brown.

Finally I'm looking forward to reading Spoils, by Iraq war vet Brian Van Reet, a novel set in 2003 Baghdad and told from different points of view. It's out in April, also from Little, Brown.

What are you looking forward to in 2017? I'd love to know!

1 comment:

Mystica said...

Another list to delve into. Thanks for the post.