Finally! We’re getting to the end of my recommended titles for September (see Parts I & II). Quite the bookish month!
Following are the titles publishing the last weeks of September. The publisher’s summary is in italics, my comments in bold. To preorder, click on the title link!
Nightfall by Jake Halpern, Peter Kujawinski (Sept. 22):
Night is coming.
On Marin’s island, morning doesn’t come every twenty-four hours it comes every twenty-eight years. And every evening her town sets sail for the south to wait out the long night. None of the adults will tell Marin, Kana, and their friend Line exactly why they have to leave their homes, but when the three are accidentally left behind in the gathering dusk, they come to understand the truth: at Night, their town belongs to others, and those others want them gone.
Fleeing through the now-alien landscape that used to be their home, the three confront deadly hazards, unexpected transformations, and uncomfortable truths. They are challenged to trust one another or perish. Marin, Kana, and Line must find their way off the island—before the Night, and the terrifying host of creatures that inhabit it, finds them.
The publisher has really outdone itself on the marketing for this title. Uber spookiness, right up my alley!
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson (Sept. 22):
In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson, the Bloggess, examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life in the fullest:
“According to the many shrinks I’ve seen in the last two decades, I am a high-functioning depressive with severe anxiety disorder, mild bipolar tendencies, moderate clinical depression, mild self-harm issues, impulse control disorder, and occasional depersonalization disorder. Also, sprinkled in like paprika over a mentally unbalanced deviled egg, are mild OCD and trichotillomania…. I’ve often thought that people with severe depression have developed such a well for experiencing extreme emotion that they might be able to experience extreme joy in a way that ‘normal people’ also might never understand. And that’s what Furiously Happy is all about.”
Jenny’s first book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, sold over 400,000 copies. Her blog receives between 1-2 million page views per month and she has nearly 400,000 Twitter followers; her platform has grown exponentially since her first book and continues to expand. Her readings were standing room only, with fans lining up to have Jenny sign their bottles of Xanax or Prozac as often as they were to have her sign their books.Furiously Happy will appeal to Jenny’s core fan base but will also transcend it. There are so many people out there struggling with depression and mental illness, either themselves or someone in their family-and inFuriously Happy they will find a member of their tribe offering up an uplifting message; via a taxidermied roadkill raccoon. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened ostensibly was about embracing your own weirdness, but deep down it was about family. Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it’s about joy-and who doesn’t want a bit more of that?
If you haven’t read Jenny Lawson’s work yet, be it her previous book or her blog, what are you waiting for?! Such a talented woman, dealing and bringing to focus many the things that we, as a society, attempt to keep hidden. And come on, look at the book cover?! How could you not want this book!?
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell (Sept. 22):
In this thrillingly reimagined fairy tale from the truly magical combination of author Neil Gaiman and illustrator Chris Riddell, the tales of Snow White (sort of) and Sleeping Beauty (almost) are woven together with a thread of dark magic.
On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. The queen casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes up her chain mail and her sword, and follows her three brave dwarf companions into the tunnels under the mountain toward the sleeping kingdom, intent on saving the princess and deciding her own future. Alas, the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems….Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have twisted together the familiar and the new as well as the beautiful and the wicked, and the result is a captivating and darkly funny tale that will hold readers spellbound from start to finish.
Neil Gaiman, need I say more?!
Mitford Novel #13: Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon (Sept. 22):
Over the course of ten Mitford novels, fans have kept a special place in their hearts for Dooley Kavanagh, first seen in At Home in Mitford as a barefoot, freckle-faced boy in filthy overalls.
Now, Father Tim Kavanagh’s adopted son has graduated from vet school and opened his own animal clinic. Since money will be tight for a while, maybe he and Lace Harper, his once and future soul mate, should keep their wedding simple.
So the plan is to eliminate the cost of catering and do potluck. Ought to be fun.
An old friend offers to bring his well-known country band. Gratis.
And once mucked out, the barn works as a perfect venue for seating family and friends.
Piece of cake, right?
In Come Rain or Come Shine, Jan Karon delivers the wedding that millions of Mitford fans have waited for. It’s a June day in the mountains, with more than a few creatures great and small, and you’re invited—because you’re family.
By the way, it’s a pretty casual affair, so come as you are and remember to bring a tissue or two. After all, what’s a good wedding without a good cry?
I love, love, love this series. Small town life, close friendships. Simply perfect.
After You by Jojo Moyes (Sept. 29):
A NOTE FROM JOJO MOYES ABOUT HER EXCITING NEW NOVEL, AFTER YOU:
Dear Reader,
I wasn’t going to write a sequel to Me Before You. But for years, readers kept asking and I kept wondering what Lou did with her life. In the end the idea came, as they sometimes do, at 5:30 in the morning, leaving me sitting bolt upright in my bed and scrambling for my pen.
It has been such a pleasure revisiting Lou and her family, and the Traynors, and confronting them with a whole new set of issues. As ever, they have made me laugh, and cry. I hope readers feel the same way at meeting them—especially Lou—again. And I’m hoping that those who love Will will find plenty to enjoy.
—Jojo Moyes
I squealed when I read Moyes was writing a follow-up to Me Before You. I’m having heart palpitations just thinking about it. I have my boxes of tissues by my side!
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood (Sept. 29):
Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around—and fast. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed and everyone gets a comfortable, clean house to live in…for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents of Consilience must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system. Once their month of service in the prison is completed, they can return to their “civilian” homes.
At first, this doesn’t seem like too much of a sacrifice to make in order to have a roof over one’s head and food to eat. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who lives in their house during the months when she and Stan are in the prison, a series of troubling events unfolds, putting Stan’s life in danger. With each passing day, Positron looks less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled.
Atwood never ceases to astound me with her novels of postapocalyptic fiction. The cover, the title, the premise; everything about this title has my attention.
And that wraps up my most anticipated titles of September posts! What did I miss? Which titles are you looking forward to most?
