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Week of September 30, 2024

Paperback releases for the week of September 30th include THE VASTER WILDS, a taut and electrifying novel from Lauren Groff about one spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to survive; BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CHRISTMAS by Mary Kay Andrews,   a novella celebrating love and the warm, glittering charm of the holiday season; Ben Fountain's DEVIL MAKES THREE, a brilliant and propulsive novel about greed, power and American complicity set in Haiti; THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF RUDOLF DIESEL, a rich saga from Douglas Brunt that reopens the hundred-year-old mystery of what really became of Rudolf Diesel, one of the world’s greatest inventors, who disrupted the status quo and then disappeared into thin air on the eve of World War I; and EVERYTHING I LEARNED, I LEARNED IN A CHINESE RESTAURANT, a savory coming-of-age memoir that tells the story of Curtis Chin’s time growing up as a gay Chinese American kid in 1980s Detroit. 

October 2024

October's Books on Screen roundup includes the season premieres of "Tracker" on CBS and "The Lincoln Lawyer" on Netflix; the conclusion of Apple TV+'s "Bad Monkey"; the season finales of "Pachinko" on Apple TV+, "The Chicken Sisters" on Hallmark+, and "Tell Me Lies" on Hulu; the films Conclave, The Radleys and White Bird in theaters, as well as 'Salem's Lot on Max and A Sprinkle of Deceit: A Hannah Swensen Mystery on Hallmark Mystery; the series premieres of Apple TV+'s "Disclaimer" and Netflix's "The Last Night at Tremore Beach"; the continuation of "Three Women" on STARZ and "My Brilliant Friend" on HBO; and the DVD releases of The Thicket, Deadpool & Wolverine, The Convert and Harold and the Purple Crayon.

October 1, 2024

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 30th and October 7th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our special contest for THE GRAYS OF TRUTH by Sharon Virts, a gripping tale of murder and deceit.In anticipation of the book’s October 29th release, we are awarding an advance copy to 25 readers. The deadline for your entries is Friday, October 11th at noon ET.

Shelley Read Book Group Event

October 1, 2024

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this fall. Read more about it, and enter our Fall Reading Contest by Wednesday, October 2nd at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of LIBBY LOST AND FOUND by Stephanie Booth, which releases on October 15th. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

September 27, 2024

Last Saturday, I went to Manasquan, NJ with Annmarie Puleio for an event with Liane Moriarty, who talked about her new novel, HERE ONE MOMENT. It was lovely to finally meet Liane after reading --- and enjoying --- many of her books. She was interviewed by Ann Napolitano, who asked great questions and kept the conversation going. I asked Liane how she kept all of her characters straight. I assumed she was plotting, but she said she wrote more stream of consciousness. Given the book's wide cast, this was very impressive! It was nice to see so many enthusiastic readers lined up to meet her, especially since the weather was amazing and we were at the beach.

Jami Attenberg, author of A Reason to See You Again

The women of the Cohen family are in crisis. Triggered by the death of their patriarch, Rudy, the glue that held them all together, everyone’s lives soon take a dramatic turn. Shelly, the younger of the two Cohen sisters, runs off to the West Coast to immerse herself in the emerging (and lucrative) world of technology. Her sister, Nancy, gets married at the age of 21 to a traveling salesman with a shadowy lifestyle, while their mother, Frieda, hurls herself into a boozy, troubled existence in Miami, trying to forget the past even as it haunts her. But they each learn in different ways that running from the past can’t save you --- and then must make life-altering decisions about what they want their family to be and what they need to move forward.

Dean Koontz, author of The Forest of Lost Souls

Raised in the wilderness by her late great-uncle, Vida is a young woman with an almost preternatural affinity for nature, especially for the wolves that also call the forested mountains home. Formed by hard experience, by love and loss, and by the prophecies of a fortune teller, Vida just wants peace. If only nearby Kettleton County didn’t cast such a dark shadow. It’s where Jose Nochelobo, the love of Vida’s life and a cherished local hero, died in a tragic accident. That’s the official story, but Vida has reasons to doubt it. The truth can’t be contained for long. Nor can the hungry men of power in Kettleton who want something too: that Vida, like Jose, disappear forever. One by one they come for her, prepared to do anything to see their plans through to their evil end. Vida is no less prepared for them.

Richard Powers, author of Playground

Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a 3,000-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough. They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Sally Rooney, author of Intermezzo

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his 30s. In the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women --- his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a 22-year-old competitive chess player. In the early weeks of his bereavement, he meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude --- a period of desire, despair and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.