The November 2022 Prepub Alert posts are also available as a downloadable spreadsheet of titles.  

Fiction

Mystery

Bowen, Rhys. Peril in Paris. Berkley. (Royal Spyness Mystery, Bk. 16). Nov. 2022. 384p. ISBN 9780593437858. $27. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

No plot details yet on this latest in the 1930s-set series featuring Lady Georgiana Rannoch, aka Georgie, though from the title we can guess that she’s carrying out her amateur sleuthing in the City of Light. From Agatha/Anthony award winner Bowen.

Brown, Rita Mae. Hiss and Tell. Bantam. (Mrs. Murphy, Bk. 31). Nov. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9780593357545. $28. MYSTERY/COZY

When there’s murder in the Blue Ridge Mountains, you can bet that Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen will be investigating, aided by her fabulous cats (just as the perenially best-selling Brown is aided by feline coauthor Sneaky Pie Brown).

Dovalpage, Teresa. Death Under the Perseids. Soho Crime. (Havana Mystery, Bk. 3). Nov. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9781641292160. $27.95; pap. ISBN 9781641294058. $16.95. lrg. prnt. MYSTERY/INTERNATIONAL

Though delighted, Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey is still uneasy when she and U.S. husband Nolan win a five-day cruise to Cuba, and she grows increasingly suspicious when acquaintances Selfa and Javier also show up with a free ride. Then disappearance and death start stalking the foursome. Cuban American Dovalpage’s atmospheric series appeals not only to mystery fans.

Evanovich, Janet. Going Rogue. Atria. (Stephanie Plum, Bk. 29). Nov. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781668003053. $28.99. CD. MYSTERY

Having launched a new series this spring with The Recovery Agent, the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Evanovich returns with the ever-popular Stephanie Plum, still dealing with trouble and her troublesome family.

Horowitz, Anthony. The Twist of a Knife. Harper. (Hawthorne and Horowitz, Bk. 4). Nov. 2022. 400p. ISBN 9780062938183. $29.99. lrg. prnt. CD. MYSTERY

Former detective inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his trusty sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, have had enough successful adventures together to secure a 100,000-copy first printing for their next in the series from prolific, BAFTA-winning Horowitz.

Khan, Ausma Zehanat. Blackwater Falls. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Blackwater Falls, Bk. 1). Nov. 2022. 368p. ISBN 9781250822383. $27.99. MYSTERY/POLICE PROCEDURAL

Though immigrant girls have long been disappearing in Blackwater Falls, CO, frantic calls to investigate are ignored until the bloodied body of star Syrian student Razan Elkader is found laid out ceremoniously at the mosque. Now Det. Inaya Rahman and Lt. Waqas Seif of the Denver Police are in charge, launching a new series from the author who gave us Det. Esa Khattak. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

Margolin, Phillip. Murder at Black Oaks. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Robin Lockwood, Bk. 6). Nov. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9781250258465. $27.99. CD. MYSTERY

When retired district attorney Francis Hardy invites defense attorney Robin Lockwood to his Oregon mountains manor, which legend says is cursed, he asks her to help reverse a wrongful conviction from his past. Lockwood’s efforts are successful, but Hardy is later stabbed to death with a knife linked to the curse, and Lockwood has a whole new assignment. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Mathews, Francine. Death on a Winter Stroll. Soho Crime. (Merry Folger Nantucket Mystery, Bk. 7). Nov. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9781641292740. $27.95. MYSTERY

With Nantucket emerging from COVID’s shadow, Police Chief Meredith Folger is eagerly anticipating the Christmas Stroll. But the island is overrun by a TV production team and the Secretary of State’s entourage, which complicates Merry’s work when several seemingly unconnected murders occur. Next in a praised series from the author who writes the “Being a Jane Austen Mystery” series as Stephanie Barron.

Nossett, Lauren. The Resemblance. Flatiron: Macmillan. Nov. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781250843241. $28.99. MYSTERY

A fraternity brother at the University of Georgia is struck dead in a hit-and-run, and witnesses concur that the driver—who looked just like the victim—was cheerfully smiling as he swooped away. When Det. Marlitt Kaplan uncovers nasty secrets plaguing the fraternity system, the threats come fast and furious. A professor herself, Nossett racks up a 150,000-copy first printing for her debut.

Perry, Anne. A Christmas Deliverance. Ballantine. Nov. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9780593359105. $22. lrg. prnt. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

Head of a free clinic in 1870s London, Dr. Crowe falls in love with a patient named Ellie and seeks to uncover the connection between her, her father, and the fiancé she’s apparently being forced to marry. Meanwhile, as the holidays approach, the clinic is being run by Scuff, a former street urchin now studying with Crowe. Readers will remember Scuff from the New York Times best-selling Perry’s “William Monk” series.

Priest, Cherie. Flight Risk. Atria. (Booking Agents, Bk. 2). Nov. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781982168926. $27. MYSTERY

First introduced in 2021’s Grave Reservations, psychic travel agent Leda Foley is here asked to locate a woman who decamped in a vintage orange car with a stack of her employer’s cash and a simmering hatred for her cheating husband. Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s dog has vanished, too, but turns up with a human leg in his jaws. Of course the cases intertwine.

Literary Fiction

Anie, Sussie. To Fill a Yellow House. Mariner: HarperCollins. Nov. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9780063087385. $27.99. CD. LITERARY

When his family moves to a different part of London, Kwasi feels lost until he befriends Rupert, the white, middle-aged, widowed proprietor of a charity shop that’s seen better times. Together they face the roiling changes in their community and lives. British Ghanian writer Anie makes her debut; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Banks, Russell. The Magic Kingdom. Knopf. Nov. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780593535158. $30. Downloadable. LITERARY

In 1971, property speculator Harley Mann records his life story, starting with his father’s unexpected death, which drove his family down to Florida to join a Shaker community. The community saved the struggling family, but Harley’s love for a consumptive patient there had consequences that forced him to reassess the conservative Shaker worldview. From two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Banks.

Berry, Wendell. How It Went: Thirteen More Stories of the Port William Membership. Counterpoint. Nov. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9781640095816. $26. LITERARY

Multi-award-bedecked novelist/poet/essayist Berry returns with a collection set in the fictional Kentucky town that’s home to his autobiographical character Andy Catlett, who relates 13 stories with settings ranging from 1945 to 2001. A celebration of lives well spent and of family and friends, living and deceased.

Chen, Kevin. Ghost Town. Europa Editions. Oct. 2022. 384p. tr. from Chinese by Darryl Sterk. ISBN 9781609457983. $27. LITERARY

The only son a Taiwanese family with seven daughters had longed for, Chen Tien-Hong flees to Berlin in search of acceptance as a gay man but returns 10 years later after his release from prison for killing his boyfriend. His family is scattered and shattered, and readers learn of their fate and what really lay behind the murder. Winner of the Taiwan Literature Award.

Cho Nam-Joo. Saha. Liveright: Norton. Nov. 2022. 224p. tr. from Korean by Jamie Chang. ISBN 9781324090885. $22. LITERARY

Cho follows up her international phenomenon, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, with the story of a tumbledown housing complex—once a fishing village—on the border of Town. Town is prosperous for those with the right skillsets, which doesn’t include the residents of squalid Saha Estates. But they’re ready to rise.

Keegan, Claire. Foster. Grove. Nov. 2022. 96p. ISBN 9780802160140. $20. LITERARY

Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize and considered a classic in Ireland, Keegan’s novella features a young girl who finds fleeting happiness when she’s sent to live with foster parents in rural Ireland. It appeared here in an earlier version in The New Yorker and is expected to garner attention following the success of Keegan’s multi-best-booked Small Things Like These.

Shevelev, Mikhail. Not Russian. Europa Editions. Oct. 2022. 160p. tr. from Russian by Brian James Baer & Ellen Vayner. ISBN 9781609458119. pap. $17. LITERARY

Watching the news with his wife one night in 2015, journalist Pavel Vladimirovich learns that terrorists have taken hostages at a church near Moscow and that their leader is an old friend, Vadim Petrovich. Pavel is asked to negotiate with Vadim but instead finds himself working through personal details, from their first enigmatic meeting to Vadim’s wartime experiences in Chechnya and Ukraine, which leads directly to the terrorists’ shocking demand. The Isaac Babel Prize–winning Shevelev is a novelist and freelance journalist covering Russia for Radio Liberty.

Usami, Rin. Idol, Burning. HarperVia. Nov. 2022. 128p. tr. from Japanese by Asa Yoneda. ISBN 9780063213289. $24.99. CD. LITERARY

In this Akutagawa Prize–winning novel, which has fired up the Japanese literary community, socially maladroit high school junior Akari is over-the-top obsessed with Masaki Ueno, a member of the popular J-Pop group Maza Maza. When a fan claims that Masaki assaulted her, Akari cannot step back and rescue herself from her illusions. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Wilson, Kevin. Now Is Not the Time To Panic. Ecco. Nov. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9780062913500. $27.99. lrg. prnt. CD. LITERARY

Teenage loners Frankie Budge, an aspiring writer, and Zeke, a gifted artist who’s just moved in with his grandmother in Coalfield, TN, create an anonymous poster whose unsettling legend—The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers. We are fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us—has the town in an uproar. Two decades later, Frankie is a celebrated author worried that her life is about to be blown apart by a journalist revisiting the Coalfield Panic of 1996. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

Thrillers

Belle, Kimberly. The Personal Assistant. Park Row: Harlequin. Nov. 2022. ISBN 9780778333630. $28.99; pap. ISBN 9780778333258. $17.99. CD. THRILLER/PSYCHOLOGICAL

Braverman, Blair. Small Game. Ecco. Nov. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9780063066175. $27.99. CD. SUSPENSE/LITERARY

Christie, William. The Double Agent. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9781250080820. $27.99. THRILLER/ESPIONAGE

Connelly, Michael. Desert Star. Little, Brown. (Renée Ballard, Bk. 5). Nov. 2022. 400p. ISBN 9780316485654. $29. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. CRIME

Graham, Heather & Jon Land. Blood Moon. Tor. (The Rising, Bk. 2). Nov. 2022. 400p. ISBN 9780765389718. $27.99. THRILLER/SUSPENSE

Hannah, Sophie. The Couple at the Table. Morrow. Nov. 2022. 368p. ISBN 9780063257702. $27.99. lrg. prnt. CD. THRILLER/SUSPENSE

Henderson, Alice. A Ghost of Caribou: A Novel of Suspense. Morrow. (Alex Carter, Bk. 3). Nov. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780063223004. $27.99. CD. THRILLER/SUSPENSE

Meadows, Rae. Winterland. Holt. Nov. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9781250834522. $27.99. THRILLER/HISTORICAL

Paris, B.A. The Prisoner. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9781250274144. $28.99. CD. THRILLER/PSYCHOLOGICAL

Patterson, James & Brian Sitts. The Perfect Assassin: A Doc Savage Thriller. Grand Central. Nov. 2022. 400p. ISBN 9781538721858. $32; pap. ISBN 9781538721841. $17.99. CD/downloadable. THRILLER

Steadman, Catherine. The Family Game. Ballantine. Nov. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9780593158067. $28. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. THRILLER/SUSPENSE

Unger, Lisa. Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six. Park Row: Harlequin. Nov. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780778333234. $27.99. lrg. prnt. THRILLER/PSYCHOLOGICAL

Following a misjudged post gone nastily viral, popular mommy blogger Alex discovers that The Personal Assistant who knew too much about her has vanished, with USA Today best-selling author Belle shifting perspectives between the two (75,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). In Small Game, a fiction debut from Braverman (Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube), survival instructor Mara lands on a reality TV show with a mixed bag of teammates hoping to win a pile of money by camping out in some undisclosed woodlands but not counting on being stranded (150,000-copy first printing). Slipped into German intelligence by the Soviets (and by Single Spy author Christie), Double Agent Alexsi Smirnoff is captured in 1943 by the British, who recruit him for their own purposes (50,000-copy first printing). In Connelly’s Desert Star, LAPD detective Renée Ballard rejoins the force to run the newly minted Open-Unsolved Unit, where Harry Bosch volunteers so that he can pursue a psychopath who slaughtered an entire family (750,000-copy first printing). In this follow-up to Graham and Land’s The Rising, high school seniors Alex Chin and Samantha Dixon must counter a threat to all humanity, signaled by the ascent of a Blood Moon over the vanished Mayan city of El Mirador (75,000-copy first printing). “Beware of The Couple at the Table nearest to yours” says the note to honeymooners Jane and William, but the tables at their swanky resort are all equidistant—New York Times best-selling Hannah’s way of chilling protagonists and readers alike (50,000-copy first printing). Searching for a mountain caribou reportedly spotted in Washington State– A Ghost of Caribou because this subspecies was thought extinct in the contiguous United States—wildlife biologist Alex Carter instead encounters environmental conflict and a murdered forest ranger; wildlife researcher Henderson follows up A Blizzard of Polar Bears (75,000-copy first printing). Living in the Soviet Union in 1973, above the Arctic Circle—Winterland, indeed—eight-year-old Anya is tapped as a promising gymnast even as she mourns her mother, who vanished after challenging state policies; following Meadows’s LJ-starred I Will Send Rain (75,000-copy first printing). Having built a successful life for herself in London after being orphaned as a child in Paris, Amelie marries dashing billionaire Jed—and realizes when she’s kidnapped that she feels less like The Prisoner now than she did in her marriage; from the mega-best-selling Paris (200,000-copy first printing). Grandson of action hero Doc Savage, nerdy professor Brandt Savage is pressed into a top-secret training program that re-creates him mentally and physically as The Perfect Assassin; following Patterson’s first comic-book hero foray, The Shadow (250,000-copy paperback and 45,000-copy hardcover first printing). In Steadman’s latest, emerging novelist Harry husband loves her husband, Edward, but he’s one of the Holbecks—filthy rich and dangerous—and though he’s tried to be shot of them, the couple is soon dragged into The Family Game. In Unger’s Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, Hannah’s rich techie brother is graciously facilitating a weekend getaway for themselves, their spouses, and another couple, but an intrusive rental host, the personal chef’s creepy stories, and a sneaking suspicion that someone in the group has a vendetta put a damper on things (150,000-copy first printing).

SF/Fantasy

Marske, Freya. A Restless Truth. Tordotcom. Nov. 2022. 400p. ISBN 9781250788917. $27.99. FANTASY/HISTORICAL

Hopping aboard an ocean liner as an older lady’s companion to help her older brother crack a generations-old magical conspiracy, Maud Blyth must deal with both the woman’s death and a powerful attraction to scandalous passenger Violet Debenham, an actress and magician. Following up the multi-best-booked A Marvellous Light, winner of the Romantic Novel Award in Fantasy; a 100,000-copy first printing.

Maxwell, Everina. Ocean's Echo. Tor. Nov. 2022. 464p. ISBN 9781250758866. $27.99. SF/SPACE OPERA

In the universe of Maxwell’s LJ-starred, Alex-winning Winter’s Orbit, man-about-town Tennal is a neuromodified mind reader shadily conscripted into the military and assigned to Lt. Surit Yeni, who can influence minds. Too principled to obey illegal orders to control Tennal, Surit instead plots with him to fake a sync bond and help him escape. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Polk, C.L. Even Though I Knew the End. Tordotcom. Nov. 2022. 144p. ISBN 9781250849458. $19.99. FANTASY/HISTORICAL

In this latest from World Fantasy Award winner Polk, a magical detective who sold her soul to save her brother's life refuses a final assignment before being consigned to hell for eternity, then reconsiders when she’s offered the chance to grow old with the woman she loves. Her task: find the White City Vampire, a vicious Chicago killer, in three days. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

Roberts, Nora. The Choice. St. Martin’s. (Dragon Heart Legacy, Bk. 3). Nov. 2022. 448p. ISBN 9781250272720. $29.99. CD. FANTASY

In this conclusion to the trilogy begun with The Awakening and The Becoming, Breen Siobhan Kelly rests comfortably now that her evil-god grandfather’s efforts to control her and her homeland of Talamh have been waylaid. Then treacherous witches appear in her dreams, threatening to destroy her and the innocents around her. With a one-million-copy first printing.

Sanderson, Brandon. The Lost Metal: A Mistborn Novel. Tor. Nov. 2022. 464p. ISBN 9780765391193. $29.99. FANTASY

In their final outing as part of the “Mistborn” series, Wax and Wayne–that is, Waxillium and Wayne, joined by Marasi—journey to the city of Bilming, in turmoil as it attempts to break away from the central government in Elendel. Actually, it’s under the sway of the dangerous god Trell. With a 500,000-copy first printing.

Tan, Sue Lynn. Heart of the Sun Warrior. Harper Voyager. Nov. 2022. 448p. ISBN 9780063031364. $27.99. CD. FANTASY

In this sequel to the LJ-starred Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Xingyin has secured her mother’s release from the Celestial Emperor, but disturbing magic on the moon and upheaval within the Celestial Kingdom as the emperor amasses power forces her to flee to the Immortal Realm. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Thomas, Sheree Renée & others, eds. Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction. Tordotcom. Nov. 2022. 528p. ISBN 9781250833006. $27.99. SF/FANTASY

Locus and World Fantasy finalist Thomas, Nommo Award–winning speculative author Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight, a USA Today best-selling author and British Fantasy Award–winning editor, join forces to present 32 original stories highlighting the power of fantasy and SF from Africa and the African diaspora. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Historical Fiction

Burdick, Serena. The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey. Park Row: Harlequin. Nov. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780778386865. $28.99; pap. ISBN 9780778333104. $17.99. CD. HISTORICAL

In 1898 England, Evelyn Aubrey manages to escape her marriage when her writer’s-blocked husband claims her writing as his own. A century-plus later, Californian Abigail is searching through her deceased mother’s effects to discover her father’s identity when she happens upon a collection of poems by Evelyn Aubrey and starts unraveling her family history. From the author of the best-selling The Girls with No Names; with a 100,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing.

Fredericks, Mariah. The Lindbergh Nanny. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781250827401. $27.99. HISTORICAL

Author of the Gilded Age–set “Jane Prescott” murder mysteries, Fredericks turns her attention to the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, retelling the story from the perspective of the baby’s nanny. A Scottish immigrant, Betty Gow must prove her innocence when she’s caught in the terrible glare of suspicion, even as she struggles to secure justice for little Charlie. A 50,000-copy first printing.

Miller, Madeline. Galatea: A Short Story. Ecco. Nov. 2022. 64p. ISBN 9780063280519. $12. HISTORICAL

Published nearly a decade ago in a hardcover-ebook combo and an instant Sunday Times best seller in the UK, this reimagining of the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion by the Orange-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Circe and The Song of Achilles comes with a new foreword and a 200,000-copy first printing.

Salazar, Noelle. Angels of the Resistance. Mira: Harlequin. Nov. 2022. 368p. ISBN 9780778333609. $28.99; pap. 384p. ISBN 9780778386797. $17.99. HISTORICAL

When the German army invades the Netherlands during World War II, Lien’s older sister is drafted into the Dutch resistance, and Lien insists on joining, too, partly to assuage guilt over the accident that killed their baby sister. Soon they’re leaning on their sweet-girl looks to move about easily as they collect information, hide Jewish families, and lure top German military to their deaths. With a 175,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing.

Stratton, Richard. Defending Alice: A Novel of Love and Race in the Roaring Twenties. HarperVia. Nov. 2022. 576p. ISBN 9780063115460. $28.99. CD. HISTORICAL

In 1920s New York, upper-crust Leonard “Kip” Rhinelander shocked high society by marrying working-class Alice Jones, then sued for an annulment when he discovered that she had at least one Black grandparent. This fictionalization of real events from author/filmmaker Stratton, whose Slam won prizes at Sundance and Cannes, has been optioned for film. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

Contemporary

Alexander, Claire. Meredith, Alone. Grand Central. Nov. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781538709948. $28. Downloadable. CONTEMPORARY

Content with working remotely, playing with rescue kitty Fred, cooking up her favorite recipes, inviting in best friend Sadie and her two children, and attending her online support group, Meredith Maggs hasn't left her house in 1,214 days. Deep trauma is keeping her indoors, but inevitably the world comes calling. A debut with a 50,000-copy first printing.

DeuxMoi. Anon Pls. Morrow. Nov. 2022. 384p. ISBN 9780063257801. $27.99. CD. CONTEMPORARY

The anonymous DeuxMoi, who maintains one of the most heatedly active celebrity pop culture accounts on Instagram thanks to 1.3 million followers, joins forces with New York Times best-selling author Jessica Goodman to craft the tale of a burned-out fashion assistant who launches a hot gossip blog. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Shipman, Viola. A Wish for Winter. Graydon House: Harlequin. Nov. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9781525804892. $28.99; pap. ISBN 9781525804847. $17.99. HOLIDAYS

In this follow-up to Shipman’s USA TODAY best-selling The Secret of Snow, a small-town Michigan bookseller happily agrees to meet the nice guy she’s been chatting with at the start of a 5k charity Santa Run in Chicago and is crushed when he doesn’t show, not realizing that he was hospitalized during the run. She doesn’t know his name (or exactly what he looks like–that Santa suit!), and her grandparents help by launching the viral Single Kringle social media posting to find him. With a 75,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing.

Steel, Danielle. The Whittiers. Delacorte. Nov. 2022. 272p. ISBN 9781984821836. $28.99. lrg. prnt. CONTEMPORARY

After their parents’ ski trip ends in tragedy, the six Whittier siblings gather at the family’s beautifully restored Manhattan mansion to find a way to go forward. The four eldest—Lyle, who faces marital problems; Wall Street–wedded Gloria; and twins Caroline and Charlie, struggling to maintain their fashion business—must decide how best to help special-needs Benjie and college-age Annabelle. The last of Steel’s seven 2022 hardcovers.

Nonfiction

U.S. History

Diemer, Andrew K. Vigilance: The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad. Knopf. Nov. 2022. 432p. ISBN 9780593534380. $30. Downloadable. HISTORY

Born free of previously enslaved parents in 1821, William Still was hired as a clerk at Philadelphia’s Anti-Slavery Office and was soon directly involved in helping hundreds of people escape to freedom across the Mason-Dixon Line. Towson University professor Diemer (The Politics of Black Citizenship) revivifies the story of the man known in his lifetime as “the father of the Underground Railroad.”

Kagan, Robert. The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900–1941. Knopf. Nov. 2022. 688p. ISBN 9780307262943. $35. HISTORY

A senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and cofounder of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, Kagan examines the bumpy road taken by the United States to world power in the 20th century, as the dream of neutrality came up against a desire to play arbiter. While acknowledging some huge moral lapses in U.S. foreign policy, he argues for a U.S. interventionist approach to world affairs today. Sure to be a dust stirrer.

Lancaster, John. The Great Air Race: Death, Glory, and the Dawn of American Aviation. Liveright: Norton. Nov. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9781631496370. $28.95. HISTORY

In his first book, veteran journalist Lancaster soars along with dozens of pilots, mostly World War I veterans, who joined the U.S. transcontinental air race of October 1919 with the aim of being the first to complete a roundtrip flight between New York and San Francisco in a fragile, open-cockpit biplane. He flew the route himself, which should make the reading even more fun.

Mufti, Shahan. American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, DC. Farrar. Nov. 2022. 384p. ISBN 9780374208585. $30. HISTORY

On March 9, 1977, members of the Hanafi Movement—a Washington, DC–based Black Muslim group—took hostages at B’nai B’rith International headquarters and the Islamic Center of Washington, the city’s most important mosque, and also entered the District Building. Nation of Islam breakaway Hamaas Abdul Khaalis made numerous demands, from the surrender of the men who had murdered his family to the cancellation (and destruction) of an epic film about the Prophet Muhammad’s life, and the just-created U.S. counterterrorism forces were sorely tested. From University of Richmond journalism chair Mufti (The Faithful Scribe); with a 20,000-copy first printing.

Schiff, Stacy. The Revolutionary Samuel Adams. Little, Brown. Nov. 2022. 464p. ISBN 9780316441117. $35. CD/downloadable. BIOGRAPHY

Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Schiff follows up The Witches: Salem, 1692 with a biography of Samuel Adams, a somewhat overlooked Founding Father known especially for his eloquence in rallying others to the cause of rebellion against the Crown. Relevant to our times, he was also a master of fake news.

Young, RJ. Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope, and Fallout of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Counterpoint. Nov. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9781640095021. $26. HISTORY

Author of the acclaimed Let It Bang: A Young Black Man's Reluctant Odyssey into Guns, the Tulsa-raised Young digs deep into events surrounding the city’s horrific 1921 massacre of Black residents while also considering how Tulsa deals with the legacy of the massacre and ongoing racial injustice today. Fox sportscaster Young has a big social media presence.

Clark, Lloyd. The Commanders: The Leadership Journeys of George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel. Atlantic Monthly. Nov. 2022. 432p. ISBN 9780802160225. $30. HISTORY

de Bellaigue, Christopher. The Lion House: The Coming of a King. Farrar. Nov. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9780374279189. $28. HISTORY

Drury, Bob & Tom Clavin. The Last Hill: The Epic Story of a Ranger Battalion and the Battle That Defined WWII. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2022. 416p. ISBN 9781250247162. $29.99. CD. HISTORY

Everitt, Anthony & Roddy Ashworth. Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome. Random. Nov. 2022. 432p. ISBN 9780593133200. $30. Downloadable. HISTORY

Hope, Bradley. The Rebel and the Kingdom: The True Story of the Secret Mission To Overthrow the North Korean Regime. Crown. Nov. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9780593240656. $29. Downloadable. HISTORY

Wilkinson, Toby. Tutankhamun’s Trumpet: Ancient Egypt in 100 Objects from the Boy-King's Tomb. Norton. Nov. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780393531701. $35. HISTORY

Cofounder of the Centre for Army Leadership, British Army, at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Clark weaves together the lives and careers of three consequential Commanders in World War II: U.S. general George Patton, British field marshal Bernard Montgomery, and German field marshal Erwin Rommel. In The Lion House, Orwell Prize–winning historian/journalist de Bellaigue chronicles the rule of Suleyman the Magnificent, the powerful 16th-century sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from the perspectives of those closest to him, e.g., an enslaved Greek turned Grand Vizier and a Russian consort turned beloved wife (15,000-copy first printing). From No. 1 New York Times best-selling Drury and Clavin (e.g., Blood and Treasure), The Last Hill re-creates the efforts of “Rudder’s Rangers”—an elite U.S. Army battalion—to take and hold Hill 400 in Germany (200,000-copy first printing). Joined by freelance investigative journalist Ashworth, popular historian Everitt (Cicero, The Rise of Rome) rethinks Nero, the magnet-for-trouble populist ruler who proved to be the last of the Caesars. In The Rebel and the Kingdom, Pulitzer Prize finalist Hope (Blood and Oil) tracks the activism of Adrian Hong, who abandoned his Yale studies in the early 2000s to help usher North Korean asylum seekers to safety and has become increasingly involved in efforts to track and oppose North Korea’s government, culminating in an alleged raid on Madrid’s North Korean Embassy in 2019. Author of the multi-best-booked, New York Times best-selling The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, Wilkinson commemorates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by chronicling 100 key artifacts, including the silver-shiny Tutankhamun’s Trumpet.

Memoir

Daniel, Mary-Alice. A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing: A Memoir Across Three Continents. Ecco. Nov. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9780062960047. $26.99. CD. MEMOIR

Haddish, Tiffany. I Curse You with Joy. Amistad: HarperCollins. Nov. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9780063249356. $28.99. CD. MEMOIR

Perry, Matthew. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir. Flatiron: Macmillan. Nov. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9781250866448. $29.99. CD. MEMOIR

Sehee, Baek. I Want To Die but I Want To Eat Tteokbokki. Bloomsbury. Nov. 2022. 208p. tr. from Korean by Anton Hur. ISBN 9781635579383. $24. MEMOIR

Shakur, Prince. When They Tell You To Be Good: A Memoir. Tin House. Oct. 2022. NAp. ISBN 9781953534422. $27.95. MEMOIR

Sun, Carrie. Private Equity: A Memoir. Little, Brown. Nov. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9780316252416. $29. Downloadable. MEMOIR

Taseer, Shahbaz. Lost to the World: A Memoir of Faith, Family, and Five Years in Terrorist Captivity. MCD: Farrar. Nov. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9780374192228. $28. MEMOIR

In A Coastline Is an Immeasurable Thing, poet Daniel parses multiple identities and diverse family roots as she recounts her journey from Nigeria to England to the United States (75,000-copy first printing). The breakout star of Girls Trip and the first Black female stand-up comedian to host Saturday Night Live, Haddish proclaims I Curse You with Joy in offering an essay collection that ranges from her viral head-shaving video on Instagram to reconnecting with a father she hadn’t seen for years (225,000-copy first printing). In Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Friends star Perry goes all out to discuss his struggle with addiction while offering backstage anecdotes about the mega-hit sitcom (one-million–copy first printing). Flying high as social media director at a publishing house, Sehee still felt anxious and exhausted—"I don't know, I'm–what's the word–depressed?”—and records her conversations with her therapist in I Want To Die but I Want To Eat Tteokbokki, a huge best seller in South Korea (75,000-copy first printing). Winner of the Hurston/Wright Crossover Award, Shakur’s When They Tell You To Be Good unfolds the coming of age of a queer, Jamaican American freelance journalist/essayist who relates the impact of his family’s emigration, the murder of his biological father, the willing-out of deep family secrets, and his own radicalization. Joining a rising tide of new titles examining workplace discontent, Private Equity recounts Chinese immigrant Sun’s rapid disillusionment with the Wall Street investment job she landed after graduating from MIT and her breakaway to find a better life (65,000-copy first printing). As recounted in Lost to the World, Taseer was kidnapped in 2011 shortly after the assassination of his father, the governor of the Indian state of Punjab, and held for over four years by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a Taliban-affiliated Uzbek terrorist group horrified that he had spoken in defense of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy.

Arts & Literature

Chute, Hillary, ed. Maus Now: Selected Writing. Pantheon. Nov. 2022. 496p. ISBN 9780593315774. $28. Downloadable. LITERATURE

Recently removed from the school curriculum in Tennessee, Art Spiegelman’s iconic Maus has radically shaped our understanding of the Holocaust and of graphic-arts possibilities since its publication in 1980. Distinguished Professor of English and Art + Design at Northeastern, Chute gathers commentary on the book’s outsized influence to this day, drawing on distinguished writers from Philip Pullman to Ruth Franklin.

Copeland, Misty. The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts from My Mentor Raven Wilkinson. Grand Central. Nov. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9781538753859. $30. MEMOIR/DANCE

The first Black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater, Copeland chronicled her experiences in the New York Times best-selling memoir Life in Motion. Here she celebrates mentor Raven Wilkinson, the first Black woman to dance with a major ballet company (the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, in the 1950s), who suffered hostility and death threats for her efforts. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Homans, Jennifer. Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century. Random. Nov. 2022. 800p. ISBN 9780812994308. $40. BIOGRAPHY/DANCE

Born under the last tsar and trained at St. Petersburg’s Imperial Ballet School, George Balanchine left Russia before the revolution and ended up an international star, choreographing hundreds of ballets—many for his celebrated New York City Ballet—that completely changed how we look at dance. From New Yorker dance critic Homans, author of theNew York Times best-selling and multi-best-booked Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet.

Kozinn, Allan & Adrian Sinclair. McCartney Legacy, Vol. 1. Dey Street: Morrow. Nov. 2022. 592p. ISBN 9780063000704. $35. lrg. prnt. CD. BIOGRAPHY/MUSIC

Following up a good year for Paul McCartney—see the publication of The Lyrics and David Remnick’s encomium in The New Yorker—former New York Times music critic Kozinn and the Emmy-nominated Sinclair examine McCartney’s career post-Beatles in what is projected as a two-volume work. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Murakami, Haruki. Novelist as a Vocation. Knopf. Nov. 2022. 224p. tr. from Japanese by Philip Gabriel & Ted Goossen. ISBN 9780451494641. $28. lrg. prnt. Downloadable. LITERATURE

World-class Japanese author Murakami is not known for speaking about himself. But here he opens up about how he became a novelist, what it’s like to be one, and where he finds his ideas while pondering the role of fiction in society and sources of inspiration not just for writers but for artists and musicians.

Olubas, Brigitta. Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life. Farrar. Nov. 2022. 576p. ISBN 9780374113377. $35. BIOGRAPHY/LITERATURE

Professor of English at the University of New South Wales, Olubas is a Shirley Hazzard authority, having published the first scholarly monograph on her work and recently edited volumes of her essays and stories. Here’s an authorized biography for Transit of Venus fans, drawing on letters, diaries, and notebooks; memories of friends and family; and Hazzard’s illuminating fiction itself. With a 30,000-copy first printing.

Smith, Emma. Portable Magic: A History of Books and Their Readers. Knopf. Nov. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9781524749095. $28. Downloadable. LITERATURE

From exploding the myth that Gutenberg’s press was the world’s first printing venture to clarifying the role books played in encouraging women to join the abolitionist movement and battling World War II, Smith’s narrative aims to show how, when, and why books became so important. An interesting aside: Oxford Shakespeare scholar Smith took her title from Stephen King.

Smith, R.J. Chuck Berry: An American Life. Hachette. Nov. 2022. 416p. ISBN 9780306921636. $32. Downloadable. BIOGRAPHY/MUSIC

Often called the Father of Rock and Roll, singer/songwriter/guitarist Chuck Berry was notoriously secretive about his life. Smith, who’s been a Spin staffer, Village Voice columnist, and senior editor at Los Angeles Magazine, drew on interviews, archival research, legal document analysis, and an appreciation of Berry’s St. Louis to craft this biography. What results is a forthright assessment of his entire life. With a 25,000-copy first printing.

T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land 

Eliot, T.S. The Waste Land Facsimile: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts, Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound. Liveright: Norton. Nov. 2022. 200p. ed. by Valerie Eliot. ISBN 9781324093008. $40. LITERATURE

Gordon, Lyndall. The Hyacinth Girl: T.S. Eliot’s Hidden Muse. Norton. Nov. 2022. 384p. ISBN 9781324002802. $35. LITERATURE

Hollis, Matthew. The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem. Norton. Nov. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9780393240252. $30. LITERATURE

Norton celebrates the centenary of T.S. Eliot’s magisterial The Waste Land with three key titles. Thought lost until its 1968 acquisition by the New York Public Library, the original manuscript of the poem proved to be much longer than the standing version and was published in facsimile in 1971, as edited by Eliot’s widow, Valerie. The Waste Land Facsimile is a new edition including an appendix of recently discovered corrections she intended to make and an afterword by Faber poetry editor Matthew Hollis; it comes from the Norton imprint Liveright—especially appropriate as The Waste Land was first published in the United States by Boni & Liveright. Costa Biography winner Hollis also weighs in with The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem, which reconstructs the poem’s creation and shows how strife between the poet and Vivienne, his wife at the time, imbues the writing. In The Hyacinth Girl, Gordon (T.S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life) revisits the relationship between Eliot and Emily Hale, a drama teacher to whom he wrote more than 1,000 letters and who can be seen as the source of The Wasteland’s “memory and desire.”

Last of the November Nonfiction

Andersen. Jens. The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination. Mariner: HarperCollins. Nov. 2022. 432p. ISBN 9780063258020. $32.50. CD. BUSINESS

Brands, H.W. The Last Campaign: Sherman, Geronimo and the War for America. Doubleday. Nov. 2022. 416p. ISBN 9780385547284. $35. Downloadable/CD. HISTORY

Brinkley, Douglas. Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening. Harper. Nov. 2022. 864p. ISBN 9780063212916. $35. lrg. prnt. NATURE

Conover. Ted. Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America’s Edge. Knopf. Nov. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9780525521488. $30. Downloadable. SOCIAL SCIENCE

Hilsenrath, Jon. Yellen: The Trailblazing Economist Who Navigated an Era of Upheaval. HarperBusiness. Nov. 2022. 448p. ISBN 9780063162464. $32.50. CD. BIOGRAPHY

Hubbard , Shanita. Ride-or-Die: A Feminist Manifesto for the Well-Being of Black Women. Legacy Lit: Hachette. Nov. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9780306874673. $27. Downloadable. SOCIAL SCIENCE

Martin, Steve (text) & Harry Bliss (illus.). Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions. Celadon: Macmillan. Nov. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9781250815293. $30. HUMOR

Ruffin, Amber& Lacey Lamar. The World Record Book of Racist Stories: The Ruffin Family Edition. Grand Central. Nov. 2022. 240p. ISBN 9781538724552. $29. Downloadable. HUMOR

Rutherford, Adam. Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics. Norton. Nov. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9781324035602. $30. SCIENCE

Swimme, Brian Thomas. Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe. Counterpoint. Nov. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9781640093980. $27. SCIENCE

Wright, Isaac Jr. Marked for Life: One Man’s Fight for Justice from the Inside. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9781250277480. $29.99. SOCIAL SCIENCE/MEMOIR

Award-winning Danish author/critic Andersen tells The LEGO Story, plumbing company archives and interviewing third-generation Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen to discover how his family turned those cute interlocking plastic rectangles into international toy stars (75,000-copy first printing). With The Last Campaign, Pulitzer Prize finalist Brands chronicles the battle between Apache leader, warrior, and medicine man Geronimo and U.S. general William Tecumseh Sherman that would determine the shape of the United States and the fate of Indigenous peoples beyond the Mississippi River. The New York Times best-selling Brinkley chronicles the Silent Spring Revolution of the Sixties, when environmental activists pushed first for legislation aimed at protecting the wilderness, then expanded to fighting the pollutants despoiling Earth and risking public health (200,000-copy first printing). Pulitzer Prize finalist Conover (Newjack) takes us to Cheap Land Colorado, chronicling an off-the-grid community in San Luis Valley where he lived on and off for four years so that he could get close to people who traded security for freedom or had nothing left to lose.  A senior writer at the Wall Street Journal, Hilsenrath tracks the career of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen (35,000-copy first printing). Soros Fellow and chair of the Freelance Taskforce for the National Association of Black Journalists, Hubbard argues that hip-hop ignores or demeans Black women in Ride-or-Die (30,000-copy first printing). In Number One Is Walking, Martin recaps his remarkable acting career in a graphic memoir featuring the artwork of New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss (300,000-copy first printing). With The World Record Book of Racist Stories, comedian Ruffin and big sister Lamar join forces to repeat the success of their New York Times best-selling You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, detailing the absurdist aspects of everyday racism (75,000-copy first printing). In Control, geneticist Rutherford (A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived) revisits the rise of eugenics from its origins in Victorian England to its awful apotheosis in Nazi Germany and its ongoing legacy today. What’s the impact on our psyches of knowing that the universe originated 14 billion years ago and is still expanding? Ask Swimme, author of Cosmogenesis and host and cocreator of PBS’s Journey of the Universe. Wrongly accused of drug dealing in New Jersey and sentenced to a life behind bars, Wright (Marked for Life) studied law in the prison library, helped overturn the convictions of numerous fellow inmates, then won his own release and now practices law in the same courtroom where he was convicted (125,000-copy first printing).