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Big Books of the Week

The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden (Poisoned Pen) leads holds this week. 

Other titles in demand include:

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten (Crown)

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (Harper; LJ starred review)

Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown)

Lies He Told Me by James Patterson & David Ellis (Little, Brown)

The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose (Ballantine)

These books and others publishing the week of September 30, 2024, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

Librarians and Booksellers Suggest

Seven LibraryReads and seven Indie Next picks publish this week:

Top pick Exposure by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)

“A serial killer hides in plain sight, killing the indigent Native people of Gallup, New Mexico. On the verge of an emotional crisis, Rita, a forensic photographer, heads home to her Navajo reservation for a long-overdue rest. Soon her life is put at risk. Can she save others while attempting to save herself? Readers who enjoyed Emerson’s debut, Shutter, will enjoy this followup.”—KC Davis, LibraryReads Ambassador

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang (St. Martin’s)

“Fanli, advisor to a defeated king, plots to bring down the victors. To do so, he embarks on a search for a beauty to present to the new king, who can also act as his spy. Xishi is more than a pretty face. She is adept, and cunning, and has her own reasons to want revenge. This is a fascinating story covering themes of revenge, sacrifice, and the political realities of war.”—Joan Hipp, Florham Park Public Library, NJ

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“As enchanting as it is heartbreaking, A Song To Drown Rivers follows a young woman turned deadly spy, who uses her beauty and charm as a devastating weapon to topple kingdoms. This book will take your breath away!”—Claire Deeds, Covered Treasures Bookstore, Monument, CO

The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon) *Good for Book Clubs

“This fiendishly blackhearted takedown of the literary world is a follow-up to Korelitz's bestseller The Plot, a novel about a washed up writer who finds success after he steals the storyline from a deceased student. This time we follow the story of Anna, the widow of the aforementioned writer, who surprisingly now has a runaway bestseller of her own.”—Alisa Stanfield, LibraryReads Ambassador

It is also an Indie Next pick:

“The meta fictional humor of this sequel to The Plot works on every level—as a straightforward thriller, as a satire of the literary industrial complex, and as a knowing wink to the secret strivings and longings of artists everywhere.”—Errol Anderson, Charis Books & More, Atlanta, GA

Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown (Bantam)

“Two sisters attend Princeton ten years apart. Days before the younger sister’s graduation, she’s found dead. Maya can't believe Naomi’s death was an accident, and looks toward Greystone, a secret society to which both sisters belonged, and a charismatic professor. Told in dual timelines, there are twists and turns that readers won’t see coming. This novel is a welcome addition to academic thrillers.”—Jennifer Winberry, Hunterdon County Library, NJ

Hall of Fame picks include The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose (Ballantine), The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden (Poisoned Pen), and Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey (Avon)

Five additional Indie Next picks publish this week:

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (Harper; LJ starred review)

“A stunning look at small town life. A beautiful look at a place and a way of life that is harmful to those that live it. Erdrich draws you right into the hearts and souls of her characters and their surroundings.”—Marisa Neyenhuis, Chapter One Book Store, Hamilton, MT

The Universe in Verse: 15 Portals To Wonder through Science & Poetry by Maria Popova, illus. by Ofra Amit (Storey)

“Imagine aliens asking us about the human experience, about what it is like living on earth, and us giving them a guide. I’d like it to be this book. I’ve been a subscriber to Popova’s newsletter for a long time and my life is better for it. And now there’s a BOOK!”—Andrea Iriarte, Molly’s Bookstore, Melrose, MA

Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera (Graywolf)

“There isn’t a writer out there like Yuri Herrera, one of my favorite Latin American writers. His newest novel is just as brilliant. An extraordinary, vivid, and ingenious novel. I couldn’t look away from the minute I started reading.”—Oscar Almonte Espinal, Uncle Bobbie's Coffee & Books, Philadelphia, PA

The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski (Atria; LJ starred review)

“Sisters and secrets. Magic and mystery. Tea and tarot! I could not have been more invested in what happens to these triplets and their tea shop in Chicago, bursting with magic and a house that loves them just as much as they love each other.”—Rhiannon Gupta, R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison, CT

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister (Counterpoint; LJ starred review)

“This one blew me away! The whole human experience contained in an immersive tale about the five children of a strange family navigating their relationship to each other, the land, and their history. A spectacular accomplishment.”—Christie Olson Day, Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle’s Children’s Books, Mendocino, CA

In the Media

People’s book of the week is Love Can’t Feed You by Cherry Lou Sy (Dutton). Also getting attention are Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner (Grove) and The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Celadon). A “New in Memoirs” section highlights Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty by Hillary Rodham Clinton (S. & S.), Connie by Connie Chung (Grand Central) and Life in the Key of G: One Note at a Time by Kenny G with Philip Lerman (Blackstone). 

The cover feature highlights how Riley Keough is sharing her mother Lisa Marie Presley’s story in From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir (Random). Jennifer Aniston has written a new children’s book, Clydeo Takes a Bite Out of Life illus. by Bruno Jacob (Harper Collins). Star cooks Dolly Parton and Rachel Parton George present their new cookbook Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals; A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food (Ten Speed). Plus, a recipe from Julia Turshen, What Goes with What: 100 Recipes, 20 Charts, Endless Possibilities (Flatiron). 

Reviews

NYT reviews Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown): “Sometimes Gladwell’s stories are interesting, even if years behind the public discussion on his subjects. But they are marred by this desire for Newtonian laws”; and The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (Harper; LJ starred review): “This is a novel of the collective, in which the emblematic diamond informs the structure of the work—facets of the story are illuminated from character to character.” Washington Post also reviews: “As usual when closing a book by Louise Erdrich, I’m left wondering, how can a novel be so funny and so moving? How can life?”

NYT also reviews Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten(Crown): “None of us is Ina Garten. And yet, she has created an inviting and relaxing world that’s the equivalent of one of her cocktail recipes. To use a Barefoot Contessa catchphrase, How great is that?”; The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister (Counterpoint; LJ starred review): “Despite the novel’s cover, which seems better suited to a dark romance, don’t expect butterflies; there are only angry goats and three-legged possums here. Pick this one up for its exquisite characterization, decaying settings and a dash of Southern gothic horror”; Model Home by Rivers Solomon (MCD): “Both Solomon, like Ezri, has let fatalism get the better of them, the gravity of their subject matter luring them to write an overwrought cautionary parable. The character at the center gets lost in the ambition”; and Monet: The Restless Vision by Jackie Wullschläger (Knopf): “Far from self-contained, she argues, Monet’s art was continually spurred, redirected, interrupted and sometimes stymied by ‘his joys and sorrows, loves and disappointments.’”

Washington Post reviews Final Cut by Charles Burns (Pantheon; LJ starred review): “A sense of the unsolved pervades Burns’s stories, but his mysteries are psychological, even existential”; The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World by Christine Rosen (Norton): “Dutifully, she ticks off the many delights she believes are under threat—travel, sex, eating, looking long and hard at a painting in a museum—but absent from her book is any substantive, extended celebration of sensory pleasure, or any language that might evoke the tang of tactility”; and Health and Safety: A Breakdown by Emily Witt (Pantheon): “Witt effectively historicizes the return of the rave in the United States, but her desire to do so confuses me; she doesn’t seem to like writing more than she does partying.”

Briefly Noted

People shares the best books of October. 

CrimeReads suggests 10 new books for the week.

T&C has “20 Best Gothic Novels to Read on a Gloomy Autumn Night.”

BuzzFeed recommends what to read after Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing.

NYT talks with Ta-Nehisi Coates about his new book, The Message (One World). 

Authors on Air

Ina Garten chats with CBS Sunday Morning about her new memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens (Crown) and “a life of reinvention.”

Malcolm Gladwell discusses his new book, Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering (Little, Brown), with CBS Sunday Morning.

Veteran and author Jack Carr speaks about his new book, Targeted: Beirut; The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror with James M. Scott, on FoxNews. 

PBS Canvas has an interview with Danzy Senna about her latest book, Colored Television (Riverhead). Senna also joins NPR’s It’s Been A Minute podcast to discuss her book’s perspective on “racial profiteering.”

LitHub previews “The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in October.”

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