October Books From the Book Expo

Once again I attended the Book Expo in May at the Javits Center and brought home lots of fantastic books. These are the books that published in October- some YA, memoir and literary fiction among them. (Click on the publisher links for more information on each book.)

1) Fans of Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give have their next read in Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal's I'm Not Dying With You Tonight. Lena and Campbell are two high school students who don't know each other, and don't have much in common. One night, a horrible incident at the football game leads to a night of dangerous chaos in their town. They must work together to make it home safely, but can they do it? Published by Sourcebooks Fire.

2)  Saeed Jones' memoir, How We Fight For Our Lives, was one of the Editors' Buzz Books on day one of the Book Expo. This week it was chosen as the Nonfiction winner of the prestigious Kirkus Prize. Praise for Jones' recounting of life as a gay man in the south, living with his religious mother and grandmother, has been effusive from all who have read it. Published by Simon & Schuster.

3) Ruta Sepetys latest YA novel, The Fountains of Silence,  is a big book set in 1957 Madrid. It tells the story of four people- Daniel, Ana, Rafa and Puri- as they try to survive and thrive under the despotic rule of Francisco Franco. This one has garnered much praise as well from critics, and Philomel Books publishes it.

4) Curdella Forbes's debut novel, A Tall History of Sugar is also set in the 1950s, but in the country of Jamaica. Moishe has a disfigurement that makes it impossible to tell what race he is. Arrienne loves Moishe from childhood and vows to protect him from those who mean to hurt him. The novel follows their lives through the context of Jamaica's colonial legacy. Akashic Books publishes it.

5) Carol Anshaw's latest novel is Right After the Weather, examines the aftermath of a violent incident. When Cate comes upon her friend being assaulted in her own home, what happens next changes her, and other people's view of her, forever. Atria publishes this haunting novel.

6) Susan Isaacs is back with another sexy, funny mystery set in the suburbs of Long Island in Takes One To Know One. Corie Geller retired from the FBI at age 35, married a judge, and became an instant mom to his 14 year-old daughter. Life is serene until she begins to believe that someone in her weekly lunch group is acting suspiciously. Is Corie just bored or is she on to something? Read it to find out. Published by Atlantic Monthly Press.

7) Aarti Namdev Shahani's memoir, Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares, recounts Aarti's family move from India to Casablanca and finally to Queens, NY. Aarti becomes a scholarship student at an elite Manhattan school and her father becomes unintentionally involved with the Mexican Cali drug cartel. It's a relevant, fascinating immigrant story, published by Celadon Books.  

Book Expo- Adult Editors' Buzz

Each year at the end of May, the Book Expo is held at the Javits Center in NYC. Publishers, booksellers, librarians, authors and bloggers gather to talk about books, especially the exciting books that are coming up for fall and winter.

On day one, the Adult Editors Buzz panel is the highlight of the day for most people. Six editors get a chance to talk about one book, and the room is usually packed with attendees. I love this event because the books presented are usually new to me, and I always end up wanting to read most of them.

Editors Panel

This year was no different. The firstbook presented was Anna Wiener's Uncanny Valley (January 20200), her memoir about bridging the gap between the works of art and culture in New York City and technology in San Francisco.  Anna left her low-paying job in publishing for a job in a big data startup. Farrar, Straus & Giroux editor Emily Bell called it "a deeply felt memoir of ideas" and said that it is very funny. She likened it to Michael Lewis' Wall Street book Liar's Poker.

Jonathan Cox from Simon & Schuster also presented a  memoir- Saeed Jones' How We Fight For Our Lives (October 2019). Cox called essayist/poet Jones' "one of the most powerful voices of his generation", and this  memoir describes Jones growing up as a black gay man, living in the South with his single mother. He has a tumultuous relationship with his mother and deeply religious grandmother. Fans of Claudia Rankine's Citizen and Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me will be drawn to this book, which he calls a "love letter to" to Jones' mother.

Sally Kim from Putnam has been involved in many terrific books- The Immortalists and Sharp Objects- and she called her book- Kiley Reid's novel Such A Fun Age (January 2020)- a cross between the book Mothers and the HBO show Insecure. It's a story about a black nanny who is accused by a security guard of kidnapping the white child in her charge. Kim called it a "good soap opera", with timely issues that beg conversation, as well as being "damn funny to read."

Crown Books editor Julian Pavia specializes in science fiction thrillers, having edited The Martian, Ready Player One and Dark Matter and his book, Rob Hart's The Warehouse (August 2019), sounds like it will be a solid hit as well. Our hero works for Cloud, a giant tech company that has its claws in every part of the American economy (if this sounds familiar, think Amazon). It's set in the near future, where climate change and a crumbling infrastructure have wreaked havoc on the country. Cloud steps in and runs much of the economy, but they are not necessarily the bad guys. They step in to a fill a vacuum.  Pavia said that one of his coworkers said after reading this "it will haunt you every time you see a box on your front step."

Laura Prescott's The Secrets That We Kept (September 2019) was presented by Knopf editor Jordan Pavlin. This debut novel deals with the CIA's efforts to smuggle Dr. Zhivago author Boris Pasternak out of Russia at the height of the Cold War. The novel's most interesting characters are the CIA secretaries who become spies to aid in the mission. Pavlin called it a cross between Hidden Figures and TV's Mad Men, saying that many of the women were smarter than most of the men in the room, and they used their "invisibility to subvert behind the scenes". I am most excited to read this one, it is on the top of my TBR pile.

Jessica Williams from William Morrow presented Kate Elizabeth Russell's My Dark Vanessa (January 2020), a timely tale of a beloved high school English teacher accused of sexual abuse by a student in 2017. In 2000, 15 year-old Vanessa had an affair with this same teacher, and when the new student contacts  Vanessa, she must decide what really happened back then. Was it consensual or was she coerced? Williams said that it tackles the issue of consent and complicity, and will make the reader uncomfortable reading it. She likened it to The Lovely Bones and Room.

Keep an eye out for these books, I'll review them as we get closer to publication dates.