10 must-reads for fall
Photo credit: Getty Images | Former US President Bill Clinto.
Fall is traditionally the season when publishers bring out their brightest literary lights. And this year, they're offering a real embarrassment of riches. Already in September we've had new books from E.L. Doctorow and Lorrie Moore (her first in 11 years), and this week brings Edward M. Kennedy's memoir, John Krakauer's book on friendly-fire casualty Pat Tillman, and a thriller from some guy named Dan Brown. Looking ahead, here are 10 books on our must-read list as the days grow shorter:
September
JULIET, NAKED, by Nick Hornby (Riverhead, Sept. 29). The wonderfully witty author of "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy" delivers another novel of musical obsession, this time about a reclusive, possibly washed-up singer-songwriter and the supergeek fan whose own life - and marriage - have bottomed out. Does anyone get a second chance?
THE CLINTON TAPES, by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster, Sept. 29). Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the civil rights movement ("Parting the Waters"), tape-recorded 79 conversations with Bill Clinton over the course of Clinton's two terms in office. After all these years (and all the dramas) we may think we know Bill - but Branch's intimate portrait is sure to offer surprises, not to mention an up-close look at the trials and tribulations of the presidency.
October
THE CHILDREN'S BOOK, by A.S. Byatt (Alfred A. Knopf, Oct. 6). Byatt dazzled readers nearly 20 years ago with "Possession," a grand romance about literary scholars and the Victorian poets they're studying. Byatt's new novel looks just as ambitious: "The Children's Book" revolves around the life of an English children's book author from 1895 to 1919, and three families whose lives are intertwined with hers as Europe tumbles into World War I.
HALF BROKE HORSES, by Jeannette Walls (Scribner, Oct. 6). Walls knocked our socks off with her first book, "The Glass Castle," a captivating memoir of her itinerant childhood and irresponsible parents. Now she's back with the fictionalized tale of her salty West Texas grandmother, who flew airplanes, managed a cattle ranch and even ran bootleg liquor.
CHRONIC CITY, by Jonathan Lethem (Doubleday, Oct. 13). Brooklyn bard Lethem ("Motherless Brooklyn," "The Fortress of Solitude") crosses the river into Manhattan - mixing fact with fantasy - in this far-out tale of a former child star, his astronaut fiancee, a pot-smoking cultural critic and an anarchist-turned-political hack. Did we mention the giant tiger at large on the city streets?
THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE, by Orhan Pamuk (Alfred A. Knopf, Oct. 26). The Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author ("Snow," "My Name Is Red") writes of illicit love and romantic obsession in 1970s Istanbul, where a traditional culture is grappling with new sexual freedoms. A man engaged to be married falls in love with a shopgirl - a distant relation - and collects small keepsakes of their affair: his museum and consolation prize when the affair ends.
November
LIT, by Mary Karr (Harper, Nov. 3). Poet Karr's bestselling 1995 memoir, "The Liar's Club," launched a thousand true-life stories of troubled childhood. (Karr's took place in East Texas, with a drunken mother.) Her new memoir shows Karr's troubles didn't end with adulthood: "Lit" chronicles the dark years before her literary success, including a bad marriage, some drinking of her own and a suicide attempt.
THE AUDACITY TO WIN, by David Plouffe (Viking, Nov. 3). The presidential campaign of 2008 already seems a distant memory - but it was undoubtedly one of the more fascinating contests in recent times. Barack Obama's campaign manager promises to detail the strategies and behind-the-scene struggles that led to that historic November victory.
EVENING'S EMPIRE, by Zachary Lazar (Little, Brown, Nov. 8). Edward Lazar was an Arizona accountant who was murdered in a Phoenix parking garage in 1975 after getting involved in a multimilliondollar real estate deal gone bad. His son, Zachary (author of the novel "Sway"), channels Joan Didion in this unapologetically literary account of his father's murder (the author has conducted research and interviews on the case but also "imagined" scenes)
UNDER THE DOME, by Stephen King (Scribner, Nov. 10). King returns to doorstop mode with this 1,000-plus page novel - billed by King's publisher as his biggest since "The Stand." It also returns the author to the territory he knows best: Maine. On a fall day in Chester's Mill, an invisible dome descends and cuts off the town, leading to chaos. An Iraq war vet, now working as a short-order cook, intends to get to the bottom of the mystery.
