A Peek at Peak Picks – November & December 2024

We’re adding twelve books to Peak Picks in November and December!

In fiction, Daniel Aleman spins a suspenseful dark comedy about a struggling writer who wakes up to find his date from the night before dead–and must then decide how far he’s willing to go to spin the misadventure into his next big book in I Might Be in Trouble; Richard Price, the author of Clockers and a writer on The Wire, gives us a razor-sharp anatomy of an ever-changing Harlem with the electrifying novel Lazarus Man; Christina Lynch pens a one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor about a hilariously grumpy pony who must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit in Pony Confidential; from Julia Armfield, the award-winning author of Our Wives Under the Sea, comes a speculative reimagining of King Lear that centers three sisters navigating queer love and loss in a drowning world in Private Rites; from Weike Wang, the award-winning author of Chemistry, comes a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations in Rental House; and Niall Williams, the author of This Is Happiness, delivers Time of the Child, a compassionate, life-affirming novel about the Christmas season that transforms the small Irish town of Faha.

In nonfiction, Patrick Hutchison debuts with Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures With a Clueless Craftsman, a memoir of the author’s journey from an office job to restoring a cabin in the Pacific Northwest, based on his wildly popular Outside Magazine piece; Joan Didion is revealed at last in this outrageously provocative and profoundly moving new work “that reads like a propulsive novel” (Oprah Daily) on the mutual attractions – and mutual antagonisms – of Didion and her fellow literary titan, Eve Babitz, in Lili Anolik’s Didion & Babitz; 75 recipes for a full year of celebrations with family and friends the Chinese American way are featured in Feasts of Good Fortune, a deeply personal intergenerational cookbook cowritten by Seattle-based mother and daughter Hsiao-Ching Chou & Meilee Chou Riddle; from Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, comes The Serviceberry, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world; from the bestselling author Katherine Rundell comes a “rare and magical book” (Bill Bryson) that reckons with the vanishing wonders of our natural world in Vanishing Treasures; and from Billy Collins, the former Poet Laureate of the United States and bestselling author of Aimless Love, comes a wondrous new collection of poems focused on the joys and mysteries of daily life in Water, Water.

(All descriptions provided by publishers.)

~posted by Frank