Yesterday, I shared the November titles that released this week. Let’s talk books for the rest of the month.
Once again, I’ve included the publisher’s summary and a brief explanation as to why I’m interested in reading that particular book.
The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais (Nov. 10)
Elvis Cole and Joe Pike keep their promises. Even if it could get them killed.
Elvis Cole is hired to find a woman who’s disappeared, a seemingly ordinary case, until Elvis learns the missing woman is an explosives expert and worked for a defense department contractor. Meanwhile, LAPD K9 Officer Scott James and his patrol dog, Maggie, track a fugitive to a house filled with explosives—and a dead body. As the two cases intertwine, they all find themselves up against shadowy arms dealers and corrupt officials, and the very woman they promised to save may be the cause of their own deaths.
I’m so, so thrilled about this one. A huge Crais fan (they call us Crais-y), I’m counting down the days until this one is mine!
Tales of Accidental Genius: Stories by Simon Van Booy (Nov.10):
“She believed it was a gift to never truly know the self. We are not who we think we are, nor how others see us. Long before death, we die a thousand times at the hands of a definition.”
In his first book of short stories since Love Begins in Winter (for which he won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award), bestselling author Simon Van Booy offers a collection of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassion. Through characters including an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguard, the teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, a divorced amateur magician from New Jersey, and a Beijing street vendor who becomes an overnight billionaire, Tales of Accidental Genius contemplates individuals from different cultures, races—rich and poor, young and old—and reveals how faith and yearning for connection helps us all transcend darkness of fear and misfortune.
Simon Van Booy won my heart with his two novels, The Illusion of Separateness and Everything Beautiful Began After. I can’t wait to sample his short stories.
Bohemian Gospel: A Novel by Dana Chamblee Carpenter (Nov.16)
Set against the historical reign of the Golden and Iron King, Bohemian Gospel is the remarkable tale of a bold and unusual girl on a quest to uncover her past and define her destiny.
Thirteenth-century Bohemia is a dangerous place for a girl, especially one as odd as Mouse, born with unnatural senses and an uncanny intellect. Some call her a witch. Others call her an angel. Even Mouse doesn’t know who—or what—she is. But she means to find out.
When young King Ottakar shows up at the Abbey wounded by a traitor’s arrow, Mouse breaks church law to save him and then agrees to accompany him back to Prague as his personal healer. Caught in the undertow of court politics at the castle, Ottakar and Mouse find themselves drawn to each other as they work to uncover the threat against him and to unravel the mystery of her past. But when Mouse’s unusual gifts give rise to a violence and strength that surprise everyone—especially herself—she is forced to ask herself: Will she be prepared for the future that awaits her?
Everything about this title calls to me: the cover, the premise. All I need is time to devote to reading it!
The Furies: A Novel by Natalie Haynes (Nov. 17)
In this psychological page-turner set at a “last-chance” school for teens, a teacher hides from her own terrible tragedy by teaching the Greek classics to her troubled students.
After losing her fiancé in a shocking tragedy, Alex Morris moves from London to Edinburgh to make a break with the past. Formerly an actress, Alex accepts a job teaching drama therapy at a school commonly referred to as “The Unit,” a last-chance learning community for teens expelled from other schools in the city. Her students have troubled pasts and difficult personalities, and Alex is an inexperienced teacher, terrified of what she’s taken on and drowning in grief.
Her most challenging class is an intimidating group of teenagers who have been given up on by everyone before her. But Alex soon discovers that discussing the Greek tragedies opens them up in unexpected ways, and she gradually develops a rapport with them. But are these tales of cruel fate and bloody revenge teaching more than Alex ever intended? And who becomes responsible when these students take the tragedies to heart, and begin interweaving their darker lessons into real life with terrible and irrevocable fury?
The Furies is a psychologically complex, dark and twisting novel about loss, obsession and the deep tragedies that can connect us to each other even as they blind us to our fate.
I somehow missed the hardcover release of this one! Remember Dangerous Minds? Kind of reminds me of that.
Chimera by Mira Grant (Nov. 24):
The final book in Mira Grant’s terrifying Parasitology trilogy.
The outbreak has spread, tearing apart the foundations of society, as implanted tapeworms have turned their human hosts into a seemingly mindless mob.
Sal and her family are trapped between bad and worse, and must find a way to compromise between the two sides of their nature before the battle becomes large enough to destroy humanity, and everything that humanity has built…including the chimera.
The broken doors are closing. Can Sal make it home?
I devoured (pun intended?!) the first book in the Parasitology trilogy but intentionally held off on reading the second until all three had been released. The time is now!!
The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris (Nov. 24):
On a cold night in October 1937, searchlights cut through the darkness around Alcatraz. A prison guard’s only daughter—one of the youngest civilians who lives on the island—has gone missing. Tending the warden’s greenhouse, convicted bank robber Tommy Capello waits anxiously. Only he knows the truth about the little girl’s whereabouts, and that both of their lives depend on the search’s outcome.
Almost two decades earlier and thousands of miles away, a young boy named Shanley Keagan ekes out a living as an aspiring vaudevillian in Dublin pubs. Talented and shrewd, Shan dreams of shedding his dingy existence and finding his real father in America. The chance finally comes to cross the Atlantic, but when tragedy strikes, Shan must summon all his ingenuity to forge a new life in a volatile and foreign world.
Skillfully weaving these two stories, Kristina McMorris delivers a compelling novel that moves from Ireland to New York to San Francisco Bay. As her finely crafted characters discover the true nature of loyalty, sacrifice, and betrayal, they are forced to confront the lies we tell—and believe—in order to survive.
I don’t know about you, but everything about Alcatraz fascinates me. I’ve read books, watched movies about the darker sides of that isolated island, but this is completely different than anything I’ve read about it. Add to the fact that I’m already a fan of McMorris’ writing and I’m sold!
The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra NewmanIn the ruins of a future America, fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star and her nomadic tribe live off the detritus of a crumbled civilization. Theirs is a world of children; before reaching the age of twenty, they all die of a disease they call Posies—a plague that has killed for generations. There is no medicine, no treatment; only the rumor of a cure.
When her brother begins showing signs of the disease, Ice Cream Star sets off on a bold journey to find this cure. Led by a captured prisoner named Pasha who becomes her devoted protector and friend, Ice Cream Star plunges into the unknown, risking her freedom and ultimately her life. Traveling hundreds of miles across treacherous, unfamiliar territory, she will experience love, heartbreak, cruelty, terror, and betrayal, fighting to protect the only world she has ever known.
You can’t tell me after reading that synopsis that you don’t want to read this one too? I just discovered it in the last day or so and now I’m aching to get a copy.
So, there you have it! The November releases I’m excited about. Tell me what I missed! What November releases are you anxiously awaiting?
The fall/winter months are times of year best spent curled up with a blanket and a nice book. Even better, a cozy mystery! Cozies are certainly one of my favorite types of books that, unfortunately, I don’t have the opportunity to read as much a I’d like. So, what better reason to read about them than a week-long celebration of cozy mysteries?
