“Books: These autumn leaves worth turning”

Books: These autumn leaves worth turning

Posted: 12 Sep 2010 03:21 AM PDT

Stow the flip-flops and sunglasses, and prepare to plop in a comfy chair with the best of the fall's new books — fiction and nonfiction. ¶ With help from the Columbus Metropolitan Library staff and the Associated Press, we've put together a list of hot titles to watch for in the coming cool months:

FICTION

• Wicked Appetite (St. Martin's, 320 pages, $27.99): Gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins, threatens Boston in the first novel in Janet Evanovich's "Unmentionable" series. (due on Tuesday)

• Safe Haven (Grand Central, 352 pages, $25.99): In the novel by Nicholas Sparks, a mysterious young woman tries to reconcile her past and fit into a small North Carolina community. (Tuesday)

• The Fall (Strain Trilogy: Book II) (Morrow, 320 pages, $26.99): This is the second novel in the near-future vampire trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. (Sept. 21)

• Fall of Giants (Dutton, 1,008 pages, $36): Ken Follett begins the historical-fiction series "The Century Trilogy" with a tale of five interconnected families experiencing World War I, the Russian Revolution and the U.S. suffrage movement. (Sept. 28)

• Nemesis (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 304 pages, $26): Through protagonist Bucky Cantor, Philip Roth imagines a polio epidemic in 1944 New Jersey. (Oct. 5)

• The Reversal (Little, Brown, 400 pages, $27.99): Working for the first time as a prosecutor rather than a defender, Mickey Haller teams with his brother, Harry Bosch, to try to convict a child killer in the Michael Connelly thriller. (Oct. 5)

• World and Town (Knopf, 400 pages, $26.95): The novel by Gish Jen stars Hattie Kong, rebuilding her life after tragedies in a small New England town. (Oct. 5)

• Our Kind of Traitor (Viking, 320 pages, $27.95): John le Carre, master of spy thrillers, returns with a tale of the Russian mafia. (Oct. 12)

• Great House (Norton, 304 pages, $24.95): In the Nicole Krauss novel, several stories, all connected to a massive writing desk, deal with an American novelist who remembers a poet who vanished in Chile, an old Israeli facing the death of his wife of 51 years and an antiques dealer tracking down objects stolen by the Nazis. (Oct. 12)

• Doctor Zhivago (Pantheon, 544 pages, $30): Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky provide a new translation of the classic Russian novel by Boris Pasternak. (Oct. 19)

• The Confession (Doubleday, 432 pages, $28.95): John Grisham's legal thriller is about a man trying to confess his heinous crime for which another was convicted. (Oct. 26)

• Moonlight Mile (Morrow, 336 pages $26.99): Dennis Lehane offers a sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone. (Nov. 2)

• I Still Dream About You (Random House, 336 pages, $26): Fried Green Tomatoes author Fannie Flagg delivers a comic mystery set in past, present and future Birmingham, Ala. (Nov. 9)

• Full Dark, No Stars (Scribner, 384 pages, $27.95): Four previously unpublished stories by Stephen King are included. (Nov. 9)

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (Amulet, 224 pages, $13.95, ages 9 to 12): Jeff Kinney moves long-suffering Greg into new territory, including boy-and-girl parties and awkward physical changes. (Nov. 9)

• Long, Last, Happy (Grove Atlantic, 464 pages, $29.95): The volume is a collection of short fiction by Barry Hannah, who died this year. (Dec. 1)

• Dead or Alive (Putnam, 848 pages, $28.95): In Tom Clancy's thriller, Jack Ryan is determined to capture terrorist Emir, the most dangerous threat to Western civilization. (Dec. 7)

NONFICTION

• The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race (Grand Central, 256 pages $27.99): When the writers of The Daily Show realized that the world was about to end, they set out to answer the Big Questions. This is a follow-up to Stewart's America (The Book). (Sept. 21)

• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk (Little, Brown, 176 pages, $21.99): David Sedaris' latest collection of tales is about animals whose behavior bears an uncanny resemblance to that of humans. (Sept. 28)

• Growing Up Laughing (Hyperion, 400 pages, $26.99): Marlo Thomas' memoir describes growing up with her father, comedian Danny Thomas, and includes interviews with contemporary funny folk such as Tina Fey and Chris Rock. (Sept. 28)

• Washington: A Life (Penguin, 928 pages, $40): Ron Chernow, who wrote biographies of Alexander Hamilton and John D. Rockefeller, provides a rich, lengthy portrait of the father of our country. (Oct. 5)

• The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood (Harper, 480 pages, $27.99): Jane Leavy's biography of the baseball Hall of Famer is alternately humorous, heroic and heartbreaking. (Oct. 12)

• Life (Little, Brown, 576 pages, $29.99): Rolling Stone Keith Richards recalls his rock 'n' roll life, including drug busts, addiction, tours and his estrangement from and reconciliation with Mick Jagger. (Oct. 26)

• My Reading Life (Nan A. Talese, 352 pages, $25): Author Pat Conroy tells of his passionate life of reading, a pursuit that saved his life and sanity. (Nov. 2)

• Saul Bellow: Letters (Viking, 608 pages, $35): Letters from the novelist — including correspondence to William Faulkner, John Cheever, Philip Roth, Martin Amis and Ralph Ellison — span eight decades and reveal a rich, complicated life. (Nov. 4)

• I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections (Knopf, 160 pages, $22.95): Nora Ephron follows I Feel Bad About My Neck with another cool, funny book about modern life. (Nov. 9)

• The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World's Most Famous Perfume (Harper, 304 pages, $25.99): Tilar J. Mazzeo profiles the olfactory icon. (Nov. 9)

• Decision Points (Crown, 528 pages, $35): Former President George W. Bush describes key decisions in his life. (Nov. 9)

• Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume I (University of California, 743 pages, $34.95): In the year of the 100th anniversary of Twain's death, the publication of this first volume of the autobiography, a major literary event, promises new, candid material. (Nov. 15)

• Decoded (Spiegel & Grau, 336 pages, $35): Rapper Jay-Z serves up some straight talk. (Nov. 16)

• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (Random House, 496 pages, $27): Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit, turns her attention to World War II bombardier Louis Zamperini, a childhood delinquent, teenage Olympian and finally, airman. (Nov. 16)

• Colonel Roosevelt (Random House, 768 pages, $35): The Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning Edmund Morris completes his trilogy on Theodore Roosevelt. The book follows Theodore Rex and The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. (Nov. 23)

Leslie King, Kathy Leonard, Robin Nesbitt, Tim Thompson and Jennifer Young of the staff of the Columbus Metropolitan Library contributed to this list, as did the Associated Press.

ngilson@dispatch.com

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