Titles to Know and Recommend, Week of May 8, 2017

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Among the books arriving next week, the most eagerly awaited, based on holds are The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick, Dennis Lehane’s Since We Fell, which is also a peer pick (see below) and Jo Nesbø’s The Thirst, the 11th novel featuring detective Harry Hole, who will make his film debut this fall, played by Michael Fassbender in The Snowman scheduled for release on October 20.

9781501140211_54f85In literary fiction, Colm Tóibín’s take on Greek tragedy, House of Names, will be heavily reviewed. Among the first is The Washington Post‘s chief critic Ron Charles who writes, “Never before has Tóibín demonstrated such range, not just in tone but in action. He creates the arresting, hushed scenes for which he’s so well known just as effectively as he whips up murders that compete, pint for spilled pint, with those immortal Greek playwrights.” Tóibín is scheduled to appear on NPR’s upcoming Weekend Edition Sunday.

The titles covered in this column, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of May 8, 2017

Media Magnets

9781501105562_17e6bThe Road to Camelot: Inside JFK’s Five-Year Campaign. Thomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie (S&S; Recorded Books).

With all the assessments of the recent election, it’s useful to be reminded that the first takes on history are often revised. In The Washington Post, Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, admits, “I thought I knew everything about the Kennedy magic on the campaign trail. But to my great surprise, Thomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie’s new book …  brings much new insight to an important playbook that has echoed through the campaigns of other presidential aspirants as disparate as Barack Obama and Donald Trump.” The authors will be featured this week on CBS Sunday Morning.

Peer Picks

9780735220683_fcd46Four LibraryReads arrive, including the #1 pick for May, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman (PRH/Pamela Dorman Books; Penguin Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“I loved this book about the quirky Eleanor, who struggles to relate to other people and lives a very solitary life. When she and the new work IT guy happen to be walking down the street together, they witness an elderly man collapse on the sidewalk and suddenly Eleanor’s orderly routines are disrupted. This is a lovely novel about loneliness and how a little bit of kindness can change a person forever. Highly recommended for fans of A Man Called Ove and The Rosie Project – this would make a great book club read.” — Halle Eisenman, Beaufort County Library, Blufton, SC

Additional Buzz: Honeyman is an EarlyReads author and was spotted by GalleyChatters in February. It is an Indie Next pick for May. InStyle names it one of “7 Books You Won’t Be Able to Put Down This Month.” Booklist stars, writing “Move over, Ove (in Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, 2014)—there’s a new curmudgeon to love.” It is doing well in audio too; AudioFile just gave it an Earphones Award. The Guardian profiles Honeyman in their introduction to the “new faces of fiction for 2017.” The book was the subject of a fierce auction fight, landing Honeyman over seven figures (in the US alone). PW reports it was one of the biggest books of the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2015. Paving the way, Honeyman won the Scottish Book Trust’s Next Chapter Award in 2014, which supports “a talented yet unpublished writer over the age of 40.”

9780062129383_31807Since We Fell, Dennis Lehane (HC/Ecco; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio).

“Rachel is a journalist who, after her online breakdown, becomes a recluse scared to resume her daily life. She is recently divorced and meets an old friend who wants to help her overcome her fear. They fall in love, marry and appear to have the perfect life, until Rachel ventures out of the house one day and sees something that makes her question everything she knows about her new husband. Once a reporter, always a reporter and Rachel has to get to the bottom of her story.” — Michele Coleman, Iredell County Public Library, Statesville, NC

Additional Buzz: DreamWorks bought the film rights prepub and Lehane will write the screenplay. Entertainment Weekly picks it as one of their “19 book you have to read in May.” The Guardian includes it on their list of “The best recent thrillers,” calling it “invigorating … With sharply acute [characterization], this is classic Lehane … [and] bears traces of his magnum opus, Mystic River.” The Denver Post counts it as one of the “38 books we can’t wait to read this spring.” Fast Company puts it on their “Creative Calendar” of “77 Things to See, Hear, And Read This May.” It is on the spring book lists complied by The Washington Post and the Amazon Editor’s Top 20. Booklist and Kirkus star. Booklist says “Lehane hits the afterburners in the last 50 pages, he produces one of crime fiction’s most exciting and well-orchestrated finales,” while Kirkus calls it “a crafty, ingenious tale of murder and deception.”

9780062661098_16823Sycamore, Bryn Chancellor (HC/Harper; HarperAudio).

“A newly divorced woman is starting life over in a small Arizona town. She comes across the skeletal remains of what the locals think is the body of a seventeen-year-old girl named Jess who disappeared almost two decades ago. The discovery forces community members to recall memories and secrets that have been buried a long time. Readers are treated to a cast of characters with distinct personalities who, with each piece of the puzzle, form a patchwork that reveals the truth surrounding Jess’s disappearance.” — Sharon Layburn, South Huntington Public Library, Huntington, NY

Additional Buzz: It is a GalleyChat title and an Indie Next pick. Bustle lists it as one of “The 15 Best Fiction Books Of May 2017,” calling it “masterfully-written suspense [that] will draw you in immediately.” Glamour includes it on their list of “New Books by Women You’re Guaranteed to Love this Summer.” LJ and PW star, with LJ calling it “absorbing” and “gripping” and PW saying it is “movingly written.”

9780307959577_b30abSaints for All Occasions, J. Courtney Sullivan (PRH/Knopf; RH Large Print; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Sisters Nora and Theresa Flynn leave their home in Ireland for a new life in 1958 Boston. Each adjusts to life in America in her own way. Steady Nora watches younger Theresa, until choices made by each woman drive the sisters apart. We follow the story from 1958 to contemporary New England, Ireland, and New York, exploring how siblings and children relate to their parents and each other as they age. Novels about Irish immigrant families and their American descendants are a weakness of mine and the way this story unfolds from everyone’s perspectives is very satisfying!” — Trisha Rigsby, Deerfield Public Library, Deerfield, WI

Additional Buzz: It is an Indie Next pick for May and a GalleyChat choice. It is on the spring book list from The Washington Post as well as Glamour‘s list of “New Books by Women You’re Guaranteed to Love this Summer.” The Denver Post picks it as one of the “38 books we can’t wait to read this spring.Elle names it as one of their “5 Must-Read Books for Your May Book Club,” saying it is for readers “ripe for a presummer blockbuster that delivers an engrossing family drama with feisty humor and transformative tough love.” NPR’s The Roundtable features it in the “Book Picks” section, calling it a “moving, unforgettable novel … captivating.” (Scroll down the page for the audio, unfortunately we cannot embed the file – if you don’t know the program, make sure to listen to the opening book-y jingle).

Tie-ins

There are no tie-ins this week. For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.

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