September is back to school season, and whether that is literal for you or more figuratively just a time to return to more bookish pastimes, there are great new releases in September to check out.
9/2: To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage
Steph Harper, member of the Cherokee Nation, has one goal: to go to the moon. Driven by focused ambition, she’ll grapple with love, the activism of her sister, and her relationship to her ancestors and her history. (general fiction)
9/9: Clown Town by Mick Herron
The spies of MI5’s Slough House are back, as River Cartwright investigates a book missing from his grandfather’s library, and an operation carried out during Ireland’s Troubles comes back around to haunt MI5. (thriller)
9/9: Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson
Recently returned from the Vietnam War, Duane Minor is just trying to make a go of it running the family bar in Oregon. But then a gang of vampires sweep through town, leaving Minor and his niece Julia drowning in grief and anger and united in just one goal: vengeance. (horror)
9/9: It Was the Way She Said It by Terry McMillan
A compilation of short stories and essays examining Black life and relationships, by the author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back. (short stories)
9/9: Life, and Death, and Giants by Ron Rindo
In a tight-knit Amish community, Gabriel Fisher – giant at nearly eight feet – struggles to reconcile his ties to community with the spotlight granted by this athletic prowess, in a novel about empathy, care, and connection. (general fiction)
9/9: Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela
How does one create an unconventional family or life, and still deal with mundanities of heartbreak and societal expectations? (general fiction)
9/9: The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer by Ragnar Jónasson, translated by Victoria Cribb
When a bestselling crime author goes missing, young detective Helgi is on the case, but the author’s past contains many unexpected secrets. (mystery)
9/9: The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
Robert Langdon is back, racing through Prague as he tries to find a missing friend whose research was about to upend understanding of human consciousness, but who had run afoul of a powerful organization. (thriller)
9/16: Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell
In this collection of short stories, characters must reckon with the emotional stakes of past actions and uncanny threats to arrive at the possibility of connection or truth. (horror)
9/16: The Vanishing Place by Zoë Rankin
Effie grew up off the grid in the New Zealand brush, feeling her home after a shocking moment of violence. Years later, a child is the only witness to a new murder, and Effie will be drawn back to reckon with the secrets of her upbringing and her family. (thriller)
9/16: The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
Over twenty tumultuous years five friends, Black women, navigate early adulthood hopes and disappointments and their relationships with one another. By the author of The Turner House. (general fiction)
9/16: Wolf Bells by Leni Zumas
Caz has turned her grandfather’s house into a refuge, where elderly folks live alongside younger residents who live for free in return for caretaking and community. But when two children – Nola and her disabled cousin James – turn up needing shelter and safety, Caz balance her mission vs. external pressures. (general fiction)
9/23: Beings by Ilana Masad
An unnamed Archivist sifts through the stories of a couple who had a brush with UFOs in 1961, and the letters of a young queer woman and science fiction writer from the 60s. As the Archivist tries to make sense of their own unexplained childhood experiences, they explore the idea of community, connection, and alienation. (general fiction)
9/23: Circle of Days by Ken Follett
Master storyteller Follett is back with the epic saga of the building of Stonhenge. (historical fiction)
9/23: Ladies in Hating by Alexandra Vasti
Two women from vastly different stations – one a Lady, one a butler’s daughter – write gothic novels and find themselves in competition. When they both go to a ghostly manor for inspiration, will their rivalry also ignite their passion? (historical romance)
9/23: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Two young people navigate love, family politics, race and class across countries and continents. By the author of The Inheritance of Loss. (general fiction)
9/30: The Cartographer of Absences by Mia Couto, translated by David Brookshaw
Intellectual Diogo Santiago returns to his hometown of Beira, Mozambique where he grapples with memories of his father, a journalist persecuted by the secret police for witnessing a massacre in the waning days of Portuguese colonial control. As Cyclone Idai threatens the documentation of his father’s experiences, Diogo examines the impermanence of memory. (general fiction)
9/30: The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
The Thursday Murder Club is back! While planning a wedding, a guest asks for the group’s help and then disappears. With help from Joyce’s daughter, can they unravel the puzzle he has left behind? (mystery)
9/30: The Librarians by Sherry Thomas
A small library in the suburbs of Austin, Texas is a refuge for patrons and staff alike, until two patrons are found dead after a murder mystery program. Now the librarians must work together to solve the crime and protect their library. (mystery)
9/30: Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur
This novel-in-ghost-stories tells the tales of the employees of a research center that houses cursed objects. (horror)
9/30: Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa
Ning runs a nail salon, balancing sharp observations of daily life and her employees alongside routine work and customer management, in a novel that examines the way the immigrant experience and the ways we perceive and are perceived.
9/30: Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei
In a near future where water covers much of the old civilization and disease runs rampant, two sisters set sail to find their missing older sister even as they deal with questions how how well they truly know one another. (science fiction)
~ posted by Andrea G.