Specially for the Arizona Daily Star
It takes a while for Arizona fall to feel very different than summer, but booksellers are feeling it. Readers feel it. Most of the best books of the year will be published in the next 10 weeks, and the fall publishing season has already begun.
Stephen King’s Fairy Tale went on sale two weeks ago. Colleen Hoover, Nelson DeMille, Fredrik Bachman, Cormac McCarthy, and John Banville have books coming up.
Predictably, the Tucson Festival of Books is giving the book a lot of attention, and—also predictably—festival volunteers are happy to share reading recommendations with the rest of us. Here are some upcoming releases that might be just the thing for you:
“Woman Without Shame” is Sandra Cisneros’ first collection of poems in 28 years. It offers songs, elegies and reflections on her life as an artist. She ponders memories, longing, love and her search for a home. “Women Without Shame” was released two weeks ago. Cisneros will be in Tucson on November 10th for a performance at the UA Poetry Center. Ellen Dickinson
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“Dinosaur” is Lydia Millet’s first publication since A Children’s Bible was a 2020 National Book Award finalist. Millet is a writer for the Tucson Center for Biological Diversity, but the book community knows our neighbor for her award-winning novels. There were a lot of them. She shows off her writing skills again in Dinosaurs, out October 11. In it, Millet examines the relationship between two men who are neighbors in Phoenix. – Bill Finley
“The passenger” by Cormac McCarthy. What will he do for an encore? McCarthy’s last book, The Road, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008. Now he’s returning, not just with one, but with two books. The Passenger, due out October 25, is part 1 of a two-part story. Part 2, Stella Maris, will be available in stores on December 6th. The story begins the night Bobby Western, a Coast Guard diver, fell into the Gulf of Mexico to investigate a sunken jet with nine passengers still buckled in their seats. – Thea Chalow
“Dinner with Ruth” by Nina Totenberg. Published two weeks ago, this is a remarkably personal memoir, recounting Totenberg’s unlikely friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. It began when Totenberg, then a reporter for the National Observer, called a young attorney named Ruth to discuss Ginsberg’s petition to the Supreme Court — the historic brief that asked the court to declare sex discrimination unconstitutional. Their friendship lasted until the day Ginsberg died. – Brenda Weiner
“Stay with the truth” by Hua Hsu is a touching memoir that explores growing up as the son of Taiwanese immigrants determined to find his own unique place in the world. The key to this story is Hsu’s unlikely friendship with a young American who is everything he doesn’t want to be. Stay True will be available Tuesday, September 27th. — Lynn Wiese Sneyd
“Via Carota” by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi is a rich, 400-page cookbook going on sale October 11th. Williams and Sodi own Via Carota, a well-loved Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village. It embodies the seasonality, simplicity and absolute deliciousness of Italian cuisine at its finest, and we hope the book can bring a little of that magic into our own kitchens. This is food you want to eat every day. – Jennifer Slothower
“The Biggest Stage” by Tyler Kepner is a World Series story that will be published on October 11, just as the MLB postseason begins. This will be the 118th World Series and we’re in good hands with Kepner. He is the national baseball columnist for The New York Times. – Jack Siry
“On the Hustle” by Adriana Herrera shows Alba Duarte, who has turned the part-time job into an art form. This time, she agrees to do a home improvement reality show with a charming but annoying ex-boss. It’s a terrible idea, isn’t it? Right? On the Hustle will be released on October 11th. – Jessica Pride
“The Quarry Girls” by Jess Lourey will be a crime thriller set in a small, intimate Minnesota town where teenagers often meet after dark at the local quarry. Heather and Brenda saw something there one dark night. They decided to keep it quiet until one of their friends disappeared…the second young girl to disappear in a week. Lourey’s new book will be available on November 1st. – Shannon Baker
“The Search for the Real” by the late Jim Harrison is a brilliant collection of essays, some published for the first time. Harrison was one of America’s most honest writers, and his “Search” ponders love, literature, hunting, fishing, life on the frontier and the magic of place. The introduction to the book, which was published two weeks ago, was written by Luis Alberto Urrea. — Bruce Dinges
Keep up with the latest from the Tucson Festival of Books by visiting Tucson FestivalOfBooks.org.
