Goodbye and good riddance to the beach, read. At least for this year, we can stop pretending that baking on the sand under the hot sun or reclining awkwardly on a damp plastic lounge chair by the pool is the ideal setting for reading. Now that the autumnal equinox is behind us, we can look forward and enjoy the truly ideal season for reading: fall.
Or we can’t be so dramatic and just say that there will be a lot of books coming out between now and the holidays. A few we’ve included in our roundup are highly anticipated sequels to stunning entries on the literary scene. Others are big, ambitious projects. Still others are versions of older works that are only now being translated into English. There are obviously a few high-profile titles that we missed for the sake of brevity, but hopefully there are a few titles here that weren’t on your radar before.
FICTION
The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw (September 29)
Philyaw News Collection 2020 The secret lives of the ladies of the Church it was like a discovery. Published by a small university press, the book was courageous and honest in its treatment of sexuality and religion. It became such a sensation in some corners of the literary world that one really had to ask: what did Philyaw do right? Well, we’ll soon find out in her first full-length novel about sex, religion, gossip and marriage.
Partita by Barbara Kingsolver (October 6)
This is Kingsolver’s 19th novel. Fresh off her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Copperhead Demonone of the most prominent voices in Appalachian writing, publishes a book about a pianist on her way to classical music stardom, until that path is disrupted. Kingsolver herself went to college to study classical music, but never really showed her love for it in her fiction – until now.
It’s just dancing by Jasmine Guillory (October 6)
Every now and then I come across a video of a cute couple doing (or trying to do) the Dirty dance elevator. It’s a bold move with a high risk factor to eat it completely. Well, now Jasmine Guillory is showing the same boldness. Her next book – her first YA novel – is a version Dirty dancing. It follows a young girl and her charming dance teacher, as they try to figure out their dance moves – and each other.
Little, Brown and company
Brightness by Chad Harbach (October 27)
This is the long-awaited sequel to Harbach’s popular 2011 baseball/campus novel. The art of the field. We’re returning to Westish College, but we’re ditching the bats and balls and instead focusing on sexual assault, feminism, campus politics, and the high costs of speaking out.
Behind the door and other stories by Amparo Dávila, translated by Audrey Harris and Matthew Gleeson (November 3)
With his collection of short stories 2018 The house guestMexican author Amparo Dávila has become a staple of the English-language cult canon of weird girl literature. Dávila died at age 92 in 2020, but a new collection of her frightening, disturbing and strange stories will be released in English this fall.
NON-FICTION
I can’t stop thinking about horses and sex by Lisa Hanawalt (October 20)
A graphic memoir of Tuca and Bertie creator Lisa Hanawalt who tells you exactly what the title is about. And the horse bit isn’t a metaphor for life or anything, there’s actually a lot in here about riding, taking care of horses, and how loving horses is both silly/ridiculous/expensive and, also, one of the best things in the world. OK, maybe that’s a bit of a metaphor.
Celeste, daughter of the Earth and other early poems by Enrique Lihn, translated by Jonathan Cohen and David Unger (October 20)
This book brings together the first translated works of the famous Chilean poet Enrique Lihn. And they have the sincere verve and dynamism of a young poet. In the poem “Steadfast,” the narrator speaks about the subject with anger and bitterness, but ends with the lines: “I will live secretly by your side / like the corpse I have been since I loved you.”
Look at Me by Dustin Hoffman with Ariel Levy (November 10)
Dustin Hoffman is now 89 years old. During his life, he was at the center of some of the most enduring images etched into the psyche of American culture. You can imagine that, right? Him on the bus The graduate. Him at the office All the President’s Men. Him and the big crocodile Hook. It’s a safe bet that his memoir will cover at least two of these films in depth.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Weird Era: How Pitchfork Changed Music Forever: A Memoir by Ryan Schreiber (December 1)
As the founder of the music website Pitchfork, Schreiber had a front-row seat to the changing tides of music, music distribution, music criticism, the Internet, snobbery, taste, fame, obscurity, and the evaluation of art on a scale of 1 to 10. The book looks back at the origins of Pitchfork and provides insight into its eventual sale to Condé Nast, reminding readers that there is a real person behind that review you hated.
Co-creation: how Earth created life and life created Earth by Olivia Judson (December 13)
Big changes need to be supported, and explaining the origins of life on Earth is perhaps one of the biggest changes you can make. Judson is an evolutionary biologist but has spent most of her career as a science writer, explaining the world and all of its inhabitants to the rest of us.
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Gn entert
