Who could resist going to a program called “Book Buzz with Nancy Pearl”? Certainly not the thousands of librarians here in Portland this week for the Public Library Association Conference. Your Shelf Talk team was there, scoping out upcoming novels and nonfiction titles.
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (coming out soon; available to place a hold now): The newest from one of Nancy’s favorite fantasy authors combines historical fiction and fantasy in 10th century China. After reading it, Nancy sent an unsolicited note to the publisher: “It had everything in it that made me such a fan in the first place.”
The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick (coming in May; available to place on hold now): Nancy says the newest from the author of Mayflower “strips away the mythology; you really see Custer and you really see Sitting Bull.”
The Impartial Witness by Charles Todd (coming in August): The second in the series featuring Bess Crawford, a British nurse during World War I. Nancy said the series is a wonderful choice for readers who enjoy the Maisie Dobbs mystery series by Jacqueline Winspear. (“Charles Todd,” by the way, is actually a mother-son writing team; they are also the authors of the Ian Rutledge mystery series.)
Several publishers shared more of their upcoming titles during this “Book Buzz” session. Here are just a handful of notable authors with new books coming soon (and you can place holds on most of these right now!):
- Ivan Doig (Work Song, bringing back the main character from The Whistling Season; available to place a hold now for June release)
- Aimee Bender (The Particular Sadness of Lemoncake; June)
- David Mitchell (The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet; June)
- Tana French (Faithful Place, third in the series that started with In the Woods; July)
- Dinaw Mengestu (How to Read the Air, a new novel from one of our Seattle Reads authors; October)
- Sharyn McCrumb (The Devil Amongst the Lawyers, a new Ballad novel; August)
- Emily Giffin (The Heart of the Matter, available to place a hold now for a May release)
I picked up advanced reading copies (ARCs) of Aimee Bender’s and David Mitchell’s novels soon after this Book Buzz session (and placed a Library hold on the Philbrick title; oh, and then picked up another 22 books that I absolutely must read) — and I can’t wait to get started reading them.
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