It takes a while for autumn to feel much different than summer in Arizona, but booksellers feel it. Readers feel it. Most of the yearâs best books will be released in the next 10 weeks, and the fall release season is already underway.
âFairy Taleâ by Stephen King went on sale two weeks ago. Colleen Hoover, Nelson DeMille, Fredrik Bachman, Cormac McCarthy and John Banville all have books coming soon.
Predictably, the Tucson Festival of Books is paying close attention, and â also predictably â festival volunteers are happy to share reading recommendations with the rest of us. Here are some upcoming releases that may be just right for you:
âWoman Without Shameâ is Sandra Cisnerosâ first collection of poetry in 28 years. It offers songs, elegies and reflections on her life as an artist. She ruminates on memory, desire, love and her search for home. âWomen Without Shameâ was released two weeks ago. Cisneros will be in Tucson for an appearance at the UA Poetry Center on Nov. 10. â Ellen Dickinson
âDinosaursâ is Lydia Milletâs first release since âA Childrenâs Bibleâ was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2020. Millet is a writer for Tucsonâs Center for Biological Diversity, but those in the book community know our neighbor for her award-winning novels. There have been a bunch of âem. She shows her writing chops again in âDinosaurs,â which goes on sale Oct. 11. In it, Millet examines the relationship between two men who are neighbors in Phoenix. â Bill Finley
âThe Passengerâ by Cormac McCarthy. What will he do for an encore? McCarthyâs last book, âThe Road,â won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008. He now returns, not just with one book but two. âThe Passenger,â set for release Oct. 25, is Part 1 of a two-part story. Part 2, âStella Maris,â will go on sale Dec. 6. The story begins the night Bobby Western, a Coast Guard diver, plunged into the Gulf of Mexico to examine a sunken jet with nine passengers still belted into their seats. â Thea Chalow
âDinners With Ruthâ by Nina Totenberg. Released two weeks ago, this is a remarkably personal memoir recounting Totenbergâs unlikely friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. It began when Totenberg, then a reporter for the National Observer, called a young lawyer named Ruth to discuss Ginsbergâs petition to the Supreme Court â the historic brief that asked the court to declare sexual discrimination unconstitutional. Their friendship continued until the day Ginsberg died. â Brenda Viner
âStay Trueâ by Hua Hsu is a touching memoir that explores growing up as the son of Taiwanese immigrants who is determined to find his own unique place in the world. Key to this story is Hsuâs unlikely friendship with a young American who is everything he does not want to be. âStay Trueâ will be available Tuesday, Sept. 27. â Lynn Wiese Sneyd
âVia Carotaâ by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi is a meaty, 400-page cookbook that will go on sale Oct. 11. Williams and Sodi own Via Carota, a widely-beloved Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village. It embodies the seasonality, simplicity and utter deliciousness of Italian cooking at its finest, and weâre hopeful the book can bring a bit of that magic into our own kitchens. This is food you want to eat every day. â Jennifer Slothower
âThe Grandest Stageâ by Tyler Kepner is a history of the World Series, released on Oct. 11, just as the MLB postseason gets underway. This will be the 118th World Series and weâre in good hands with Kepner. He is the national baseball columnist for the New York Times. â Jack Siry
âOn the Hustleâ by Adriana Herrera features Alba Duarte, who has turned the side hustle into an art form. This time she agrees to do a home improvement reality show with a charming but maddening former boss. Itâs a terrible idea, right? Right? âOn the Hustleâ will be released Oct. 11. â Jessica Pryde
âThe Quarry Girlsâ by Jess Lourey will be a mystery set in a small, intimate, Minnesota town where teens often convened at the local quarry after dark. Heather and Brenda saw something there one dark night. They decided to keep it quiet until one of their friends disappears âĻ the second young girl to disappear in a week. Loureyâs new book will be available Nov. 1. â Shannon Baker
âThe Search for the Genuineâ by the late Jim Harrison is a collection of luminous essays, some of them published for the first time. Harrison was one of Americaâs most genuine writers and his âSearchâ ruminates about love, literature, hunting, fishing, border life and the magic of place. Released two weeks ago, the bookâs introduction is written by Luis Alberto Urrea. â Bruce Dinges
