The Seven Most Exciting Books of the Rest of 2011
Here's an extensive preview of the rest of the year in books! Here's what we're most excited about:
• The Jeffrey Eugenides book, The Marriage Plot, is, according to people who have read it, ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE. Out in October.
• Donald Ray Pollock's first novel is out next week, yay. He is a very nice dude from Ohio who worked in a paper mill and published his first book of stories in 2009, after he went to the Ohio State writing program at the age of 50.
• The Lev Grossman sequel to The Magicians is out next month, as is Awl pal Tom Scocca's Beijing Welcomes You. We can reveal that both are excellent!
• October brings the new Colson Whitehead book, Zone One, which is about zombies in New York City, and, yes please. And also Helen DeWitt's Lightning Rods, which is terribly exciting.
• And last but not least, Joan Didion's second grief memoir, Blue Nights, about the death of her daughter in 2005, which, I'm not sure I can do that! But I probably will anyway!
very interesting
Pollock's first book, the collection Knockemstiff, is pretty amazing as well and might hold you over until next week.
Can't wait for The Magician King. I really liked the Secret History-esqueness of the first one and all the advance buzz I've seen so far is saying the sequel is an improvement so I'm excited.
Always up for Eugenides even though I run hot and cold on his stuff, the DeWitt title sounds great, and the Beijing book is outside of my normal interests but sounds like it could be pretty interesting.
@1901gunner The Magician King was pretty much all I hoped it would be. That guy, he's got it.
Anyone who hasn't should really check out Helen Dewitt's The Last Samurai, an incredibly smart and funny book that has nothing to do with the Tom Cruise vehicle.
Sorry to ask a silly question, but I don't know how this stuff works. Where should Awl peeps who want their Scocca purchases to yield the best return for the author (and if possible, this place) make the exchange?
@TerseNursePornstein I was SO READY to sneer at this list for being novels 'n' shit but yay Beijing Welcomes You looks wonderful.
He links here (http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781594487842,00.html?/Beijing_Welcomes_You_Tom_Scocca) on his personal site, so I would imagine that's the best place to benefit the author.
Started reading The Marriage Plot on my walk to work this morning (then stopped to avoid getting run over by bikers on the Williamsburg Bridge) and eeeeeee!!
@nzle I am so excited to read this book and HOW DID YOU GET A COPY ALREADY?!?!?!
And to complete the trilogy, Didion will write a memoir of her own death about seven or eight years after she passes.
@keisertroll Boo, but yay.
EVERYBODY should read Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai RIGHT NOW, so they can be as excited about a new novel from her as I am.
AND THAT'S PRETTY EXCITED, LET ME TELL YOU.
@mishaps Do you read Paper Pools, Helen DeWitt's blog? She's stopped updating so much, but the archives are pretty interesting. I'm pretty sure she's a literal genius.