Joan Silber and Kiran Desai have new novels out this month, two authors loved by both readers and critics. Also here, the lives of an adventurer and an "apprentice mage discovering her powers."
Category: Fiction Classics
Lost love, adventure, and party spirits
You'll find novels, essays, and more here, including Jess Walter's delightful new fiction and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers highly anticipated first nonfiction. Six books in all, five published in June, an unusual mix.
“The Transit of Venus” and others
Here are good books for readers of rich literature and memoirs: Shirley Hazzard's classic; John Gregory Dunne's Las Vegas adventure now back in print; and bestselling author Fredrik Backman's new novel, which is publishing this week.
A reluctant spy, Ukraine, and a stubborn octogenarian
I chose to read these books because I've admired the work of their authors. William Boyd is one of them, whose "Any Human Heart" remains one of my all-time favorite novels. He's in top form with this new one. Also, Jonathan Littell, who wrote the controversial bestselling novel "The Kindly Ones;" his new book, nonfiction, is brilliant. You'll also find here an author whose novel published mid-20th century is about an old woman thumbing her nose at family expectations. An added bonus: poet Billy Collins.
New books published this month, plus two irresistibles
Lev Grossman's new fantasy plus the eleventh book in Norman Lock's American Novels Series are among the new releases you'll find here. Plus, an unputdownable classic novel of escape.
Recent additions to my reading table
Here’s a list of some summer reading I’ve lined up for myself. It includes a novel coming out in July by one of today’s best Irish authors, a classic Japanese crime story, a new biography, and books by two favorite authors.
“His world had ended:” the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
“The Radetzky March” is Joseph Roth's masterpiece. Everyone's pretty much in agreement about that. They're also in agreement that it's one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. If you don't know about it, here's what you’re missing, and why I took so long to get to it.
Books I’m reading and plan to read
Memoirs, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and a surprising Great American Novels list from The Atlantic magazine are shared in this post. Some of the books are new this month and next. All are what intrigue me right now, and what I'm looking forward to.
The truths of a real place and time
“No More Giants,” first published in 1966, fell into obscurity but is now back in print. Set in the American West in the 1940s, the novel’s narrator searches for the key to her brother’s death when they were growing up on the family’s cattle ranch. All I wanted to do was read this book.
New books this month, plus more
I wanted to write about January's new releases, but the two novels here are the only ones that interested me. So I'm also including a classic novel and a tempting new biography that came out a couple months ago.
Closing 2023 with these four books
Here are the ones I didn't want to leave behind. The ones I could have put off for one reason or another because I do that, thinking they can wait. Books I couldn't bear to carry into another year, the feeling I'd get at seeing them still waiting, that feeling of never getting to what you promise yourself. These are the last-minute ones.
A 1927 bestseller, film criticism, and Alice McDermott
There’s a sea of blue in these dust jackets, which I noticed when placing the books together on my dining room table. All fiction, that too a commonality, but the plots and settings of these three novels vary widely. Two I’ve read and highly recommend. The third entices.
September 2023 new books
Sumptuous reading opportunities are arriving soon, including a novel set in the near future, a new translation of "The Iliad" that's getting much attention, intriguing fiction by the admired Ron Rash, and a British novelist's first publication in the U.S.
What I’m reading this month, June 2023
There's a wide range of stories here, from a complex mystery in small town Australia to time-traveling historians, from a Central American hit man on the run to the biography of an American poet. These are the books I've chosen for myself this month, a beginning of summer reading. What do you plan to read these long hot days?
What to read next: new books and a classic
While this post is primarily about books set to release in May, it also includes two books I recommended during last Friday’s radio book show (a classic and an April thriller). They’re too good to be missed. Of the May books, you’ll find a memoir, novels, translated literature, and a collection of short stories.
The Longest Chapter 