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Big Books of the Week

In Too Deep by Lee Child & Andrew Child (Delacorte) leads holds this week. 

Other titles in demand include:

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret: A Festive Mystery by Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner)

Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!) by Bethany Joy Lenz (S. & S.)

Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer)

Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer (MCD)

These books and others publishing the week of October 21, 2024, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Three Indie Next picks publish this week:

How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund? by Anna Montague (Ecco; LJ starred review)

“This novel follows a 70-year-old woman on a road trip with her best friend’s ashes. Along the way, she confronts her grief and her sexuality, showing that honesty and connection are there if we are brave enough to reach for them.”—Colleen Schneider Cameron, Read Between the Lynes, Woodstock, IL

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret: A Festive Mystery by Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner)

“It’s short, it’s quirky, and it’s a holiday treat. Fewer pages don’t mean less complications or chances to miss clues. The trademark wry humor and references to classic mystery tropes still resonate and make this a playful gift.”—Jan Blodgett, Main Street Books, Davidson, NC

Metal from Heaven by August Clarke (Erewhon)

“A glorious, feverish, wholly lesbian feast. Boundary-pushing prose that’s not safe and same-y sounding. Follows through on the promise and consequence of violent revolution, and gives us a vision of anti- and post-capitalist community possibility.”—Allison Senecal, Old Firehouse Books, Fort Collins, CO

In the Media

People’s book of the week is The Time Keepers by Alyson Richman (Union Square & Co.). Also getting attention are Dogs and Monsters: Stories by Mark Haddon (Doubleday) and Into the Ether by Kate Banks (Regal House). A “Gripping New Fiction” section includes The Ancients by John Larison (Viking), Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán, tr. by Sophie Hughes (Riverhead), and The Witches of El Paso by Luis Jaramillo (Atria: Primero Sueno). 

The cover story features Bethany Joy Lenz’s new memoir, Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!) (S. & S.). The “Scoop” highlights Trevor Noah’s new book, Into the Uncut Grass, illus. by Sabina Hahn (One World). Plus Halloween recipes from Zoë François, Zoë Bakes Cookies (Ten Speed), and Kim-Joy, Bake Joy: Easy and Imaginative Bakes To Bring You Happiness (Quadrille). 

Reviews

NYT reviews Patriot by Alexei Navalny (Knopf): “Patriot reveals less about Navalny’s politics than it does about his fundamental decency, his wry sense of humor and his (mostly) cheery stoicism under conditions that would flatten a lesser person”; Roman Year: A Memoir by André Aciman (Farrar): “Roman Year is both an affecting coming-of-age story and a timely, distinctive description of the haunted lives of refugees”; and Sonny Boy by Al Pacino (Penguin Pr.): “Pacino doesn’t dish gossip or give much detail about his personal life, but he is passionate about acting.”

Washington Post reviews Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten (Crown): “Be Ready When the Luck Happens is a romp, filled with adventure and serendipity, a magic act that makes the hard stuff of life seem like both education and play”; Star 111 by Lutz Seiler, tr. by Tess Lewis (NYRB): “Seiler’s novels might be less showy in their ambitions than others in that genre, but his narrow aperture and lack of wistful sentimentality still leave space for plenty of literary brilliance and emotional power”; A Hudson Valley Reckoning: Discovering the Forgotten History of Slaveholding in My Dutch American Family by Debra Bruno (Three Hills): “There’s something deeply moving about Bruno and Mire, descendant of the enslaver and descendant of the enslaved, working together to gain a clear-eyed view of their shared history”; America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by H.W. Brands (Doubleday): “Brands, a prolific writer of popular history and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, makes several authorial choices that render his account distinctive”; and Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love by Julie Sedivy (Farrar): “Sedivy burrows, with enviable intimacy, into well-worn language about language, reproducing it as a lover’s discourse.”

The Guardian reviews Gliff by Ali Smith (Pantheon): “In the end our hope lies in Bri and Rose, in their generation, in outsiders. And if Smith’s recent books were a handbook for 21st-century life, Gliff is a warning as to what will happen if we ignore their lessons.”

Briefly Noted

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week. 

WSJ highlights 14 books for the week. 

NYT shares “5 Books to Help You Understand the Economy Before Voting.”

The Women’s National Book Association shares its 2024 Great Group Reads.

NYT talks with Jeff VanderMeer about his new book, Absolution (MCD).

People chats with Shirley Maclaine about her new memoir, The Wall of Life: Pictures and Stories from This Marvelous Lifetime (Crown). FoxNews shares details from the memoir.

NYT examines how Alexei Navalny’s posthumous memoir, Patriot (Knopf), was published with the aid of his widow Yulia Navalnaya. 

Authors on Air

John Grisham and Jim McCloskey discuss their new book, Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions (Doubleday), on CBS Sunday Morning. 

Mark Haddon, Dogs and Monsters: Stories (Doubleday), appears on B&N’s Poured Over podcast. 

Jenny Slate, Lifeform (Little, Brown), visits GMA and the Today Show.

Yulia Navalnaya, who helped bring to press her late husband Alexei Navalny’s posthumous memoir Patriot (Knopf), will appear on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

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