Articles tagged "current events"
Politics Shmolitics
You can’t go anywhere these days without running into some kind of political discussion, and these new and forthcoming books will keep your patrons in the know.
DEMOCRACY MAY NOT EXIST, BUT WE’LL MISS IT WHEN IT’S GONE by Astra Taylor
What is democracy really? What do we mean when we use the term? And can it ever truly exist? Astra Taylor, hailed as a “New Civil Rights Leader” (LA Times), provides surprising answers.
THE NEW RIGHT: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics by Michael Malice
The definitive firsthand account of the movement that permanently broke the American political consensus. As entertaining as it is informative, THE NEW RIGHT is required reading for every American across the spectrum who would like to learn more about the past, present, and future of our divided political culture.
Most Anticipated Books of 2018
Best of 2017 has come and gone, now here are the most anticipated books of 2018, according to major media:
Entertainment Weekly — 50 books we can’t wait to read in 2018
THE HAZEL WOOD by Melissa Albert
One of the most anticipated debuts of the year — having set off an auction frenzy — THE HAZEL WOOD is a contemporary fantasy of an aggressively literary bent, centered on a 17-year-old whose mother is stolen away.
LOOK ALIVE OUT THERE by Sloane Crosley
Crosley may have put essays aside for her 2015 novel THE CLASP, but she returns with her particular brand of sardonic wit in this new collection. The tone, she told EW, is “somewhere between jaded misanthrope and easily amused child.”
A HIGHER LOYALTY: Truth, Lies and Leadership by James Comey
What will James Comey reveal in this anticipated memoir? Publisher Flatiron Books isn’t giving much away, just saying that the former FBI director promises to give a vital lesson on sound leadership, drawing on his own experiences to provide a manual that certain world leaders desperately need.
USA Today — 10 big books to kick off 2018
THE WIFE BETWEEN US by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
What it’s about: In this twisty psychological thriller, a woman dumped by her rich husband is determined to prevent his remarriage to her “replacement.”
Why it’s hot: Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, which brought THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN to the big screen, has picked up film rights for THE WIFE BETWEEN US.
A HIGHER LOYALTY: Truth, Lies and Leadership by James Comey
What it’s about: The former FBI director, famously fired by President Trump in May, writes a book about leadership based on his own experiences and observations in government.
Why it’s hot: According to the publisher, Comey’s book will examine what “good, ethical leadership looks like and how it drives sound decisions.” The burning question: What will he say about Trump?
The Washington Post — Leadership Books to Read in 2018
A HIGHER LOYALTY: Truth, Lies and Leadership by James Comey
The former FBI director — fired by President Trump and now, some say, a Zen-like master of throwing subtle shade on Twitter and Instagram — inked what was reported to be a multi-million dollar book deal in August. The book’s publisher has said the book by Comey, also a former Justice Department official and lawyer, promises to give readers “unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in leadership itself.” Comey, who frequently uses social media to share quotations about character, justice, leadership and power, tweeted an image of the Statue of Liberty on Dec. 5, saying he was in New York to meet with his publisher, with the note: “Hope leadership book will be useful. Reassuring to see Lady Liberty standing tall even in rough weather.”
InStyle — Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018
THE GREAT ALONE by Kristin Hannah
A Vietnam POW returns from overseas and opts to relocate his family to a remote area of Alaska, far removed from the threats of war-torn societies, for a fresh start. All seems well until his PTSD kicks in during the harsh winter and turns their tiny cabin dream into a living nightmare.
LOOK ALIVE OUT THERE by Sloane Crosley
If accolades from Steve Martin and David Sedaris are any indication, Sloane Crosley’s new collection of essays delivers, with hilarious takes on fertility, mingling with swingers, and her blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo on Gossip Girl.
Esquire — The 27 Most Anticipated Books of 2018
OLIVER LOVING by Stefan Merrill Block
Oliver Loving has been paralyzed and locked in his own mind for nearly a decade, the result of a shooting in his small Texas town. In Stefan Merrill Block’s psychologically astute novel, the damaged people that surround Oliver try to piece together their own versions of what happened that night and since then, even as doctors prepare a new treatment that might help Oliver communicate again.
THE HAZEL WOOD by Melissa Albert
Here is one of those rare young adult fantasy novels that holds a self-contained world in only a few hundred pages. So much world-building, so little space. If the novel’s heroine is a teenage girl, then her story will appeal to readers of all ages, with its intrigue and strange fairy tale magic and very grown up writing.
WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? by Marilynne Robinson
Even in her fiction, Marilynne Robinson has a nonjudgmental, earnest way of writing about religion that could make an atheist long for spirituality. President Obama is a fan. In this essay collection theology and current events and philosophy take center stage, and it’s through the clarity of Robinson’s words that hope in times of political strife feels appropriate and urgent.
SOME HELL by Patrick Nathan
A heartbreaker of a book, Patrick Nathan’s debut novel captures the hell of adolescence under particularly dire circumstances: Colin is reeling from his father’s suicide even as he navigates coming of age as a gay teenager. As they are wont to do, sex and death dominate Colin’s thoughts as he makes his way, in agony but with an eye towards a hopeful future.
THE MERRY SPINSTER: Tales of Everyday Horror by Mallory Ortberg
Look out, Angela Carter. There’s a new feminist fairy tale queen in town, and her imagination is as sharp as her wit. Ortberg, co-founder of the beloved website The Toast, takes her column “Children’s Stories Made Horrific” to new heights in this collection of twisted tales that will shock and delight you.
Elle — 19 of the Best Books to Read This Winter
THREE DAUGHTERS OF EVE by Elif Shafak
From the most widely read female writer in Turkey, here’s a novel that sees violence and nostalgia vie for one woman’s attention on one intense night. In Istanbul, a relatively minor crime—an attempted robbery—sparks a wave of memories as the wealthy Peri ponders an old photograph of her college friends. As terrorist attacks break out, the religious and cultural differences between the three women demand her attention in the fraught present.
WHEN THEY CALL YOU A TERRORIST: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
Patrisse Khan-Cullors co-founded one of the most vital activist groups of recent years. Now, get to the heart of Black Lives Matter with her account of how the movement began, and marvel at the brilliance and persistence of her mission despite a continuing lack of understanding and compassion from many.
PEACH by Emma Glass
In the wake of a horrific sexual assault, titular protagonist Peach attempts to navigate a life that has tilted on its axis. As accounts of sexual assault and misconduct have arisen in recent months, our inability to reckon with such events and their aftermath has only become more clear. This short novel—under 100 pages—confronts the enormity with impressionistic grace.
FORCE OF NATURE by Jane Harper
Wow, this crime novel just gave me my newest nightmare: Five colleagues go on a hike (first mistake), and one doesn’t return. Four different stories makes it hard for Agent Aaron Falk (whom we met in Harper’s debut, THE DRY) to discern the truth. Don’t read this one during the workweek.
WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? by Marilynne Robinson
Equipped with a heart and mind that seem more capacious than ours (though she might have a match in fan Barack Obama), Marilynne Robinson has made a career out of writing life-expanding novels and wonderings, like Pulitzer Prize–winning novel GILEAD. Soon, she’ll give us a new set of essays about faith, life, and culture. readmoreremove
New Drop-In Titles!
In case you missed the news, here’s the scoop on each of our drop-in titles:
OLD SCHOOL: Life in the Sane Lane by Bill O’Reilly & Bruce Feirstein
Out: March 28, 2017
Also available in audio, introduction read by the author
Bestselling authors Bill O’Reilly and Bruce Feirstein team up to make their case about the looming confrontation over values: Old School (“which values the country’s time-tested, can-do spirit and principles”) vs Snowflake (“vehemently anti-tradition as they whine about ‘safe spaces’ and ‘trigger warnings’”).
THIS FIGHT IS OUR FIGHT: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class by Elizabeth Warren
Out: April 18, 2017
Also available in audio, read by the author
The fiery U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (#ShePersisted!) and bestselling author offers a passionate, inspiring book about why our middle class is under siege and how we can win the fight to save it.
TWO PATHS: America Divided or United by John Kasich
Out: April 25, 2017
Also available in audio
Ohio Governor John Kasich answers the burning question of our time: “Where do we go from here?” Do we head down the right path…or the garden path?
PANTSUIT NATION by Libby Chamberlain
Out: May 9, 2017
From the fastest-growing private Facebook group in history—now with nearly 4 million engaged and impassioned members—a beautifully designed 4-color inspiring collection of stories and photographs that capture what it means to live, work, struggle, love, and celebrate in our world.
THE VANISHING AMERICAN ADULT: Our Coming of Age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance by Ben Sasse
Out: May 16, 2017
Also available in audio, read by the author
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse diagnoses the causes of a generation that can’t grow up and offers a path for raising children to become active and engaged citizens. He identifies core formative experiences that all young people should pursue: hard work to appreciate the benefits of labor, travel to understand deprivation and want, the power of reading, the importance of nurturing your body—and explains how parents can encourage them.
THE SWAMP: Washington’s Murky Pool of Corruption and Cronyism—and How Trump Can Drain It by Eric Bolling
Out: June 27, 2017
Also available in audio, read by the author
From the New York Times bestselling author of WAKE UP AMERICA and Fox News cohost of “The Five” comes a lively, provocative history of Washington, DC political scandal. Bolling also offers a series of recommendations for President Trump: practical, hard-headed, and concise ways to drain the swamp and force Washington to be more transparent, more accountable, and more effective in how it serves those who have elected its politicians and pay the bills for their decisions.
RESCUED FROM ISIS: The Gripping True Story of How a Father Saved His Son by Dimitri Bontinck
Out: August 8, 2017
The gripping true story of how a father rescued his son from ISIS, and his continued efforts to help other families do the same.
PW’s Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2017
These ten Macmillan titles are some of Publishers Weekly‘s Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2017:
Fiction
BORNE by Jeff VanderMeer
In a future strewn with the cast-off experiments of an industrial laboratory known only as the Company, a scavenger named Rachel survives alongside her lover, Wick, a dealer of memory-altering beetles with whom she takes shelter from the periodic ravages of a giant mutant bear named Mord. One day, caught in Mord’s fur, Rachel finds the bizarre, shape-shifting creature “like a hybrid of sea anemone and squid” she calls Borne.
Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror
AMBERLOUGH by Lara Elena Donnelly
Donnelly’s debut, a fast-moving tale of desperate love and intrigue in a created world that recalls Europe on the brink of WWII, is emotionally wrenching and shockingly timely.
Poetry
AFTERLAND by Mai Der Vang
Vang, the 2016 Walt Whitman Award winner, tells the story of Hmong diaspora forced out of Laos and into exile as a result of the U.S.’s secret war. Vang’s unflinching poems address the status of refugees, including her family, and Hmong resilience in exile.
Comics/Graphic Novels
BOUNDLESS by Jillian Tamaki
Tamaki’s last two books—THIS ONE SUMMER and SUPER MUTANT MAGIC ACADEMY—showed she is one of the world’s best cartoonists, and this collection of her evocative short stories will just cement her reputation.
Memoir
THIS CLOSE TO HAPPY: A Reckoning with Depression by Daphne Merkin
A personal account of a life afflicted with depression, from an affluent but neglected childhood to the present day.
Literary Essays/Criticism/Biographies
THE NOVEL OF THE CENTURY: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables by David Bellos
Bellos, a translator of French literature, proves that the story of how Victor Hugo’s classic novel came to life is a complex and engrossing epic all its own.
Politics/Current Events
LOCKING UP OUR OWN: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
Former public defender Forman offers a complex look at the part played by African-Americans in shaping criminal justice policy.
Music
RECKLESS DAUGHTER: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell by David Yaffe
A biography, with dozens of in-person interviews with Mitchell, reveals the backstory behind the famous songs—from her youth on the Canadian prairie, the child she gave up for adoption, through her albums and love affairs, to the present. readmoreremove
New in Nonfiction
Delve into art, history, current events, religion, and more with these new and forthcoming nonfiction titles from Macmillan:
AGE OF ANGER: A History of the Present by Pankaj Mishra
Two starred reviews! “In an impressively probing and timely work, Mishra, a novelist and cultural critic, illuminates intellectual patterns from the past 200 years that help explain our volatile present. This exploration of global unrest is dense, but it’s so well-written and informative that it manages to be highly engaging.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review
CAUGHT IN THE REVOLUTION: Petrograd, Russia, 1917 – A World on the Edge by Helen Rappaport
From the New York Times bestselling author of THE ROMANOV SISTERS comes a gripping portrait of a St. Petersburg (then named Petrograd), at the outbreak of the Russian revolution. “An engaging if challenging look at a country’s collapse with worldwide repercussions. Informed general readers will enjoy this glimpse into history; scholars will declare it a definitive study.” — Library Journal, starred review
CHURCHILL’S MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler’s Defeat by Giles Milton
In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler’s war machine through spectacular acts of sabotage. “…Milton emphasizes the audacity and eccentricity of (Special Operations Executive) SOE’s leaders, striking the chord that makes the organization so popular with history readers.” — Booklist
GET WELL SOON: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright
A witty, irreverent tour of history’s worst plagues—from the Antonine Plague, to leprosy, to polio—and a celebration of the heroes who fought them. “The author’s prose is jaunty, lively, and filled with references to contemporary cultural history, making this work a well-researched page-turner. Readers will get an intense dose of history, written in a not-hard-to-swallow style.” — Library Journal
IDENTITY UNKNOWN: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists by Donna Seaman
An award-winning writer rescues seven first-rate twentieth-century women artists from oblivion—their lives fascinating, their artwork a revelation. “With impressive research, Booklist editor Seaman curates a fine retrospective on the history of women in the male-dominated world of 20th-century art. …A decidedly important and long-overdue showcase.” — Kirkus Reviews readmoreremove
PW Spring 2017 Announcements
Publishers Weekly looked into their crystal ball and predicted that these 98(!) Macmillan adult books will stand out in the first half of 2017:
Art, Architecture & Photography (full list)
THE SAGRADA FAMILIA: The Astonishing Story of Gaudí’s Unfinished Masterpiece by Gijs van Hensbergen
Out: July 25
This book chronicles the story of architect Antoni Gaudí’s strange masterpiece, which has remained under construction for the past 130 years, as well as the building’s complicated relationship with the city and residents of Barcelona.
YOUNG LEONARDO: The Evolution of a Revolutionary Artist, 1472–1499 by Jean-Pierre Isbouts and Christopher Heath Brown
Out: May 23
A study of Leonardo da Vinci’s formative years, his triumphs and failures in the Renaissance art world, and how his techniques developed into the style he’s famous for today.
Business & Economics (full list)
GLASS HOUSE: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town by Brian Alexander (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Feb. 14
Alexander examines how the purchase of the Anchor Hocking Glass Company by a private equity firm all but destroyed the company and the town of Lancaster, Ohio.
DROP THE BALL: Achieving More by Doing Less by Tiffany Dufu
Out: Feb. 14
Dufu recounts how she learned to reevaluate expectations, shrink her to-do list, and meaningfully engage the assistance of others—freeing the space she needed to flourish at work and to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships at home. Foreword by Gloria Steinem.
THE COMPLACENT CLASS: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream by Tyler Cowen
Out: Feb. 28
The well-known blogger, economist, and author argues that by relying on algorithms that wall Americans off from anything that might be too new or different, we postpone necessary change, which will lead to major fiscal and budgetary crisis.
Comics & Graphic Novels (full list)
BOUNDLESS by Jillian Tamaki (a Top 10 pick)
Out: June 6
With masterful art and evocative storytelling, Tamaki’s short stories tackle subjects from bedbugs to the addictive nature of pop culture to pornography.
PALOOKAVILLE #23 by Seth (a Top 10 pick)
Out: May 30
Seth’s been writing his massive story of the Matchcard brothers and their failing fan company since 1998, and it finally winds up in this book.
THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG by Mimi Pond
Out: Apr. 18
Pond’s autobiographical story continues with the saga of a naive young artist working in a restaurant full of drunks, junkies, thieves, and creeps. Pond folds their tales into her own emergence as an artist in the scuzzy, low-rent war zone of late 1970s Oakland.
HOSTAGE by Guy Delisle
Out: May 2
In the middle of the night in 1997, Doctors Without Borders administrator Christophe André was kidnapped by armed men and kept prisoner for three months in the Caucasus. Award-winning cartoonist Delisle recounts André’s harrowing experiences.
Cooking & Food (full list)
KNIFE: Steakhouse Meals at Home by John Tesar (a Top 10 pick)
Out: May 2
Bravo’s Top Chef contestant celebrates steak in every form, with recipes for popular cuts.
RIVER COTTAGE A TO Z: Our Favourite Ingredients, & How to Cook Them by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Pam Corbin, Mark Diacono, Nikki Duffy, Nick Fisher, Steven Lamb, Tim Maddams, Gill Meller, and John Wright
Out: May 2
An authoritative encyclopedia of more than 300 ingredients and 300 recipes, set to become a solid addition to the River Cottage library.
THE BUTCHER BABE COOKBOOK: Comfort Food Hacked by a Classically Trained Chef by Loreal Gavin
Out: Apr. 25
A quirky Food Network chef elevates classic cooking techniques with eclectic, rock ’n’ roll twists.
AN AMERICAN GIRL IN LONDON: 101 Nourishing Recipes for Your Family from a Californian Expat by Marissa Hermer
Out: Apr. 4
The restaurateur and star of Bravo’s Ladies of London provides nourishing, family-friendly recipes inspired by her Californian childhood and current British lifestyle.
FABIO’S 30-MINUTE ITALIAN: Over 100 Fabulous, Quick, and Easy Recipes by Fabio Viviani
Out: May 2
The bestselling author of FABIO’S ITALIAN KITCHEN presents a collection of recipes with tips and inspiration for making great Italian food in no time.
Essays & Literary Criticism (full list)
THE NOVEL OF THE CENTURY: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables by David Bellos (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Mar. 7
Bellos recounts the birth and many later lives of one of the world’s most popular novels.
AMERICAN ORIGINALITY: Essays on Poetry by Louise Glück
Out: Mar. 14
The poet’s second book of essays, after 1993’s PROOFS AND THEORIES, focuses on contemporary American poetry.
HOUSMAN COUNTRY: Into the Heart of England by Peter Parker
Out: June 20
This book investigates the particularly English sensibility of poet and classical scholar A.E. Housman (1859–1936), best remembered for the collection A SHROPSHIRE LAD, published in 1896.
TOO MUCH AND NOT IN THE MOOD: Essays by Durga Chew-Bose
Out: Apr. 11
Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s April 11, 1931, entry in A WRITER’S DIARY, Chew-Bose makes a self-portrait of a young writer shutting out the din in order to find her own voice.
THE WORLD BROKE IN TWO: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and the Year that Changed Literature by Bill Goldstein
Out: July 4
A narrative of the intersecting lives and works of four revered authors during 1922, the birth year of modernism.
ONE DAY WE’LL ALL BE DEAD AND NONE OF THIS WILL MATTER: Essays by Scaachi Koul
Out: May 2
A debut collection about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants, addressing sexism, cultural stereotypes, and the universal miseries of life.
History (full list)
CAUGHT IN THE REVOLUTION: Petrograd, Russia, 1917—A World on the Edge by Helen Rappaport (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Feb. 7
The author of THE ROMANOV SISTERS relates the outbreak of the Russian revolution through eyewitness accounts left by foreign nationals who saw the drama unfold.
LENIN ON THE TRAIN by Catherine Merridale (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Mar. 28
A celebrated scholar of Russian history offers an account of Lenin’s 1917 rail trip from Zurich to Petrograd, and the underground conspiracy and subterfuge that went into making it happen.
HIGH NOON: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn Frankel
Out: Feb. 21
Frankel relates the making of the 1952 American western film High Noon, and how screenwriter Carl Foreman’s concept of the film evolved from idea to first draft to final script, taking on allegorical weight as he was forced to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about his former membership in the Communist Party.
ISABELLA OF CASTILE: Europe’s First Great Queen by Giles Tremlett
Out: Mar. 7
Chronicles the life of Isabella of Castile, whose marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon in 1479 united two kingdoms, setting the stage for Spain’s golden era of global dominance.
THE LOCOMOTIVE OF WAR: Money, Empire, Power, and Guilt by Peter Clarke
Out: July 18
This book studies the power of war through the trajectories of David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, John Maynard Keynes, Woodrow Wilson, and F.D.R., while examining the interplay between key figures in the context of unprecedented all-out wars (both in 1914 and 1939) and the broader dynamics of history during an extraordinary period.
AUTUMN OF THE BLACK SNAKE by William Hogeland
Out: May 16
Hogeland conjures up the woodland battles and hardball politics that formed the Legion of the United States, the country’s first true standing army, when in 1783 the newly independent United States found itself losing an escalating military conflict on its borderlands.
APOLLO 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey Kluger
Out: May 16
Kluger tells of the 1968 race—over the course of just 16 weeks—to prepare an untested rocket to launch humankind’s first flight to the moon.
DODGE CITY: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West by Tom Clavin
Out: Feb. 28
Relates the story of two young and largely self-trained lawmen who led the effort that established frontier justice and the rule of law in the American West, specifically the depraved and criminal town of Dodge City, Kans.
MURDER IN THE CITY: New York, 1910–1920 by Wilfried Kaute
Out: June 13
A time capsule of crime and murder in New York in the decade of the 1910s, documented through more than 150 photographs, medical and police reports, testimonies, and analysis from the era.
Lifestyle (full list)
A COLORFUL WAY OF LIVING: How to Be More, Create More, Do More the Vera Bradley Way by Barbara Bradley Baekgaard (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Apr. 4
The founder of Vera Bradley shares the values to which she attributes her company’s runaway success.
THE HUNGRY BRAIN: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat by Stephan Guyenet (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Feb. 7
Neuroscience researcher Guyenet ties together mind and body in a health guide aimed at changing habits of thought, as well as habits of fitness and diet.
REAL LOVE: The Art of Authentic Connection by Sharon Salzberg
Out: June 6
A creative toolkit of mindfulness exercises, meditation techniques, and interactive applications that will guide readers through the process of stripping away layers of habit to find a truer meaning of love.
WHAT THE DEAD HAVE TAUGHT ME ABOUT LIVING WELL by Rebecca Rosen
Out: Feb. 14
A spiritual medium opens up about her personal life and answers the question she is asked most often: how does your connection to the “other side” help you navigate your day-to-day world?
THE HIIT BIBLE: Supercharge Your Body and Brain by Steve Barrett
Out: July 18
With HIIT (high intensity interval training) attaining widespread acceptance as a method for improving cardiovascular performance, this book aims to consolidate and demystify the science while also highlighting some of HIIT’s lesser-known benefits.
Literary Fiction (full list)
UNIVERSAL HARVESTER by John Darnielle (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Feb. 7
When mysterious footage begins appearing on VHS cassettes at the local Video Hut, life in the small town of Nevada, Iowa, takes a dark turn.
THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING by Grant Ginder
Out: June 6
A fractured family from the Chicago suburbs gathers in London for the eldest daughter’s marriage to an upper-crust Englishman, proving that the harder we strain against the ties that bind, the tighter they hold us close.
THE ANSWERS by Catherine Lacey
Out: June 6
Mary scours Craigslist for fast-cash jobs and finds herself applying for the “Girlfriend Experiment,” the brainchild of an eccentric and narcissistic actor, Kurt Sky, who is determined to find the perfect relationship—even if that means paying different women to fulfill distinctive roles.
LOVER by Anna Raverat
Out: Mar. 7
Kate, a senior executive at a multinational hotel company, has devoted her life to her job and her family. Catering to the needs of others comes easily to her, but now, after 10 years of marriage and two children, Kate discovers e-mails from her husband to another woman.
ENCIRCLING by Carl Frode Tiller, trans. by Barbara J. Haveland
Out: Feb. 21
David has lost his memory. When a newspaper ad asks his friends and family to share their memories of him, three respond: Jon, his closest friend; Silje, his teenage girlfriend; and Arvid, his estranged stepfather. This first book of a trilogy is a psychological portrait of a man by his friends.
SO MUCH BLUE by Percival Everett
Out: June 13
Kevin Pace, working on a painting that he won’t allow anyone to see, had an affair 10 years earlier with a young watercolorist in Paris. As the events of the past intersect with the present, Kevin struggles to justify the sacrifices he’s made for his art and the secrets he’s kept from his wife.
MARLENA by Julie Buntin
Out: Apr. 4
Fifteen-year-old Cat’s new town in rural Michigan is lonely and off-kilter, until she meets her neighbor, the manic, beautiful, pill-popping Marlena. The story of two girls and the feral year that will cost one her life and define the other’s for decades.
THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR by Yewande Omotoso
Out: Feb. 7
Hortensia James and Marion Agostino are neighbors. One is black, the other white. Both have recently been widowed, and are living with questions, disappointments, and secrets that have brought them shame. And each has something that the woman next door deeply desires.
THE STANDARD GRAND by Jay Baron Nicorvo
Out: Apr. 25
When an Army trucker goes AWOL before her third deployment, she meets a Vietnam vet and widower who inherited a tumbledown borscht belt resort. Converted into a halfway house for homeless veterans, the Standard—and its 2,000 acres over the Marcellus shale formation—is coveted by a Houston-based multinational company. Three violent acts are at the center of this debut.
Memoirs & Biographies (full list)
SCHADENFREUDE, A LOVE STORY: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For by Rebecca Schuman (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Feb. 7
A young Jewish intellectual falls in love with a boy, a language, and a landscape as well as Kafka, and tries to figure them all out.
THIS CLOSE TO HAPPY: A Reckoning with Depression by Daphne Merkin (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Feb. 7
A personal account of a life afflicted with depression, from an affluent but neglected childhood to the present day.
THIS IS NOT A BORDER: Reportage and Reflection from the Palestine Festival of Literature by Ahdaf Soueif (a Top 10 pick)
Out: May 9
A collection of essays, poems, and sketches celebrating, in the words of Edward Said, “the power of culture over the culture of power.”
RECKLESS DAUGHTER: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell by David Yaffe
Out: June 13
A biography, with dozens of in-person interviews with Mitchell, reveals the backstory behind the famous songs—from her youth on the Canadian prairie, the child she gave up for adoption, through her albums and love affairs, to the present.
I WAS TOLD TO COME ALONE: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad by Souad Mekhennet
Out: June 13
The daughter of a Turkish mother and a Moroccan father, born and educated in Germany, Mekhennet reports from the Middle East to North Africa to explain the rise of Islamic radicalism.
FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL: A True Love Story by Peter Turner
Out: May 2
This memoir recounts a story of friendship, love and stardom that began when Turner’s former lover, Hollywood actress Gloria Grahame, collapsed in a Lancaster hotel, and he took her into his eccentric family’s home in Liverpool. Soon to be a major feature film starring Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, and Vanessa Redgrave.
JACK AND NORMAN: A State-Raised Convict and the Legacy of Norman Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song” by Jerome Loving
Out: Feb. 21
The tragic behind-the-scenes story of Norman Mailer’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG, and his relationship with Jack Henry Abbott, who the author helped get out of prison and publish his book, IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST, after which Abbott murdered a waiter and fled to Mexico before being recaptured and imprisoned.
Mysteries & Thrillers (full list)
DOWN A DARK ROAD by Linda Castillo (a Top 10 pick)
Out: July 11
Crime and religion collide in Castillo’s ninth Kate Burkholder mystery. The police chief of Painters Mill, Ohio, must track down an Amish man convicted of murdering his wife who has escaped from prison and taken his five children hostage.
ECHOES IN DEATH by J.D. Robb (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Feb. 7
The 44th novel featuring Lt. Eve Dallas from Robb (the pseudonym of Nora Roberts), a tale of murder and high society in a future Manhattan, shows why she dominates bestseller lists.
WOLF ON A STRING by Benjamin Black (a Top 10 pick)
Out: June 6
Black, the pen name of the Man Booker Prize–winning novelist John Banville, is the author of the Quirke mystery series set in 1950s Ireland and a Philip Marlowe pastiche, THE BLACK-EYED BLONDE. Now he turns his eye on 16th-century Prague in a tale of murder and magic.
BASED ON A TRUE STORY by Delphine de Vigan, trans. by George Miller
Out: May 9
In this metafictional psychological thriller, Delphine, a successful novelist, meets L.L., an intuitive woman who promises to cure her writer’s block. As their lives become more and more entwined, L. threatens Delphine’s identity, both as a writer and as an individual.
SIX FOUR by Hideo Yokoyama, trans. by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies
Out: Feb. 7
For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl listened to the demands of their daughter’s kidnapper. They would never see their daughter again. Fourteen years later, a press officer notices an anomaly in the case.
TOWER DOWN: A Kirk McGarvey Novel by David Hagberg
Out: May 16
A freelance killer, code-named Al-Nassar, blows the supports on a pencil tower in Manhattan and sends it crashing down. CIA legend McGarvey believes that someone in the Saudi Arabian government is behind the attack.
Poetry (full list)
AFTERLAND by Mai Der Vang (a Top 10 pick)
Out Apr. 4
The 2016 Walt Whitman Award–winner devastatingly describes the Hmong exodus from Laos; the fate of thousands of refugees, including her family; and Hmong resilience in exile.
I AM FLYING INTO MYSELF: Selected Poems, 1960–2014 by Bill Knott, edited by Thomas Lux (a Top 10 pick)
Out: Feb. 14
Arranged by his friend, poet Thomas Lux, Knott’s work—encompassing surrealistic wordplay, the antipoem, sonnets, sestinas, and haikus—all convenes in this inventive and brilliant book. readmoreremove
Holt Celebrates 150 Years!
Holy smokes, Henry Holt & Company is 150 this year! (We see your awesome tweets via #Holt150!)
Founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt, the imprint focused exclusively on publishing translations and textbooks. A fruitful relationship with Robert Frost began in 1915 with the publication of NORTH OF BOSTON, and his books became a mainstay for the company and anchored a prestigious poetry list, with five collections eventually winning the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. By the mid-twentieth century the company boasted a diverse and strong trade list (including children’s books), publishing classics by Norman Mailer, Dee Brown, Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Philip Caputo, Robert Olen Butler, and W. E. B. Dubois, who won two Pulitzer Prizes.
Holtzbrinck (now Macmillan) purchased the company in 1985, and the tradition of award-winning publishing continues into the 21st century, with a list that includes the two-time Man Booker Prize-winner Hilary Mantel, Nobel Prize-winner Herta Müller, and Pulitzer Prize-winners Rick Atkinson and Elizabeth Kolbert. Holt—under the imprints Henry Holt, Metropolitan Books (celebrating its 20th anniversary), and Holt Paperbacks—publishes literary fiction, history, biography, politics, current events, science, psychology, and mysteries and thrillers, by authors such as Bill O’Reilly (the Killing series), Rick Atkinson (The Liberation Trilogy), Paul Auster, Noam Chomsky, Andy Cohen, Barbara Ehrenreich, Atul Gawande, Coretta Scott King, and Elizabeth Warren.
We’re thrilled to celebrate by giving away 5 prize packs of Holt 150 totes full of 5 notable books by Hilary Mantel, Bill O’Reilly, Diane Guerrero, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Susan Faludi to lucky librarians!
To enter the giveaway, simply email Library@MacmillanUSA.com from your professional/library-issued e-mail address (subject: Holt 150) by Friday, September 2. Make sure to include your library’s mailing address to be placed in the random drawing.*
UPDATE 9/7/16: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winners:
Elena S. Feiza, Algonquin Area Public Library District, Algonquin IL
Cindy Levine, Winston Salem State University, O’Kelly Library, Winston-Salem NC
Carla Hollar, Swannanoa Public Library, Swannanoa NC
Anna Brinegar, Huntington City-Township Public Library, Huntington IN
Carol Hanan, Pendergraft Library and Technology Center, Russellville AR
Totes McGotes! #Holt150 #TravelingTote #TravelingHolt pic.twitter.com/XQRbfBTSLD
— Henry Holt (@HenryHolt) April 27, 2016
For more, read Publishers Weekly‘s feature story on Holt’s 150th anniversary, including notable milestones from the company’s history.
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PW Fall 2015 Announcements
It’s still summer, but Publishers Weekly is looking ahead to Fall 2015. They recently selected their best of the best in a whopping 16 different categories and we’ve gathered all 90(!!!) Macmillan standouts into a handy Edelweiss collection and listed them here for you:
Art, Architecture & Photography: People and Places
HUMANS OF NEW YORK: STORIES by Brandon Stanton (a Top 10 pick)
The follow-up to Stanton’s bestseller, HUMANS OF NEW YORK, presents photos of a new group of humans, complete with stories that delve deeper and surprise with greater candor.
MYSTERIES OF THE MALL by Witold Rybczynski (a Top 10 pick and two starred reviews)
Architecture critic Rybczynski casts a seasoned eye over the modern metropolitan scene, examining cities, public places, and homes.
NEXTINCTION by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy
Steadman, a cartoonist and friend of the feathered, gives his unique take on critically endangered birds.
PATTERNALIA: An Unconventional History of Polka Dots, Stripes, Plaid, Camouflage, & Other Graphic Patterns by Jude Stewart
A book on patterns, with illustrations from polka dots to plaid: their histories, cultural resonances, and hidden meanings.
Business
THE GLOBAL CODE: How a New Culture of Universal Values Is Reshaping Business and Marketing by Clotaire Rapaille
The bestselling author of THE CULTURE CODE explains why global marketing and business must evolve to acknowledge new, universally held human values.
Comics & Graphic Novels: Graphic Lives
KILLING AND DYING by Adrian Tomine (a Top 10 pick)
A masterful anthology of Tomine’s recent work showcases various art styles to explore modern anxiety and mortality. Each tiny panel is its own universe of repressed emotion and foiled desire.
STEP ASIDE, POPS: A Hark! a Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton (a Top 10 pick)
Beaton’s first collection was a sensation, and these comics are equally droll, brainy, and sometimes devastating. Her broadsides against clueless chauvinism are especially dead on.
PUKE FORCE by Brian Chippendale
Social satire written dark and dense across Chippendale’s deconstructed multiverse of walking, talking M&Ms, hamsters, and cycloptic-yet-glamorous trivia hosts. A bomb explodes in a coffee shop: the incident is played out over and over again from the perspective of each table in the shop.
Cooking & Food: Cooking from Far and Wide
SIMPLY NIGELLA by Nigella Lawson (a Top 10 pick)
Internationally bestselling author Lawson returns to the basics with everyday recipes that make our lives easier and make us feel better, more alive, and less stressed.
SPUNTINO: Comfort Food (New York Style) by Russell Norman
The bestselling author of POLPO showcases new mouthwatering recipes and stories from Spuntino, the New York–influenced diner in London that’s been wildly successful.
AUTHENTIC PORTUGUESE COOKING: More than 185 Classic Mediterranean-Style Recipes of the Azores, Madeira and Continental Portugal by Ana Patuleia Ortins
This collection of over 200 recipes highlights the traditional flavors of Portugal.
THUG KITCHEN PARTY GRUB GUIDE: For Social Motherf*ckers by Thug Kitchen
From the duo behind the blog and the New York Times bestseller THUG KITCHEN comes the next installment of recipes with a side of attitude.
THE BLUE BLOODS COOKBOOK by Wendy Howard Goldberg and Bridget Moynahan
More than 100 hearty, soulful comfort food recipes from the CBS television cop show Blue Bloods center around the Reagan family dinner; compiled by the show’s star, Bridget Moynahan.
Sports & Entertainment: All American—from Soul Music to Football
WHAT THE EYE HEARS: A History of Tap Dancing by Brian Seibert
This magisterial history shares the saga of African-Americans in show business wielding enormous influence as they grapple with the pain and pride of tap dancing’s complicated legacy. Seibert charts tap’s growth in vaudeville circuits and nightclubs, chronicles its spread to ubiquity on Broadway and in Hollywood, analyzes its post–WWII decline, and celebrates its reinvention.
I BLAME DENNIS HOPPER: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies by Illeana Douglas
Award-winning actress Douglas submits a memoir about learning to survive in Hollywood while staying true to her quirky vision of the world in a testament to the power of art, the tenacity of passion, and the profound effect of how one movie can change our destiny.
PETTY: The Biography by Warren Zanes
Tom Petty, known for his reclusive style, has shared with rocker, writer, and friend Zanes his insights and arguments, his regrets and lasting ambitions, and the details of his life on and off the stage. The book is honest and evocative of Petty’s music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write.
FRANK & AVA: In Love and War by John Brady
The love story of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner has been told from one side or the other, it but has never been fully explored or explained—until now. Thoroughly researched and reported, this is not another storybook version of a Hollywood romance, but a compelling drama of love and emotional war that left two celebrities wounded for life.
BEAST: Blood, Struggle, and Dreams at the Heart of Mixed Martial Arts by Doug Merlino
Following four high-level MMA fighters, Merlino bluntly examines the history, culture, business, and meaning of professional cage fighting.
Essays & Literary Criticism: Looking Back
THE ART OF THE PUBLISHER by Roberto Calasso (a Top 10 pick)
The author of ARDOR should have plenty of insights to share about the business of books. His career as a publisher goes back to the beginnings of the Italian house Adelphi in the 1960s.
THE GIVENNESS OF THINGS by Marilynne Robinson (a Top 10 pick)
The author of several acclaimed novels, including GILEAD and LILA, will draw a wide audience to these 17 essays that critique our society and call for a renewed sense of grace in our lives.
THE CHALLENGE OF THINGS: Thinking Through Troubled Times by A.C. Grayling
A collection of recent writings from philosopher Grayling (THE GOD ARGUMENT) reflecting on the world in a time of war and conflict.
THE PLEASURE OF READING: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books that Inspired Them, edited by Antonia Fraser and Victoria Gray
Forty authors—10 of them new to this reprint of a book first published in 1992—including Margaret Atwood, Tom Stoppard, and Doris Lessing, explain what first drew, and continues to draw, them to literature.
THE ART OF PERSPECTIVE: Who Tells the Story by Christopher Castellani
The 11th entry in Graywolf’s popular Art Of series tackles every fiction writer’s most urgent issue: point of view.
CHANGING THE SUBJECT: Art and Attention in the Internet Age by Sven Birkerts
The author of THE GUTENBERG ELEGIES offers trenchant essays on the cultural consequences of continuing, all-permeating technological innovation.
MAKING A POINT: The Persnickety Story of English Punctuation by David Crystal
This volume concludes Crystal’s triumphant trilogy about the English language, combining the first history of English punctuation with a complete guide on how to use it.
Literary Fiction: More Is More
PURITY by Jonathan Franzen (a Top 10 pick and three starred reviews)
In Franzen’s first novel since FREEDOM, a young woman follows a German peace activist to South America to intern for his WikiLeaks-like organization.
A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin, edited by Stephen Emerson, foreword by Lydia Davis (three starred reviews)
The women of Berlin’s stories navigate a world of jockeys, doctors, and switchboard operators who laugh, mourn, and drink. Berlin is a highly influential writer despite having published little in her lifetime.
SUBMISSION by Michel Houellebecq, trans. by Lorin Stein
Paris, 2022. In an alliance with the socialists, France’s new Islamic party sweeps to power, and Islamic law is enforced. Women are veiled, and polygamy is encouraged.
THE WAKE by Paul Kingsnorth (An ALA Annual 2015 “Read ’N Rave” selection)
This Man Booker–longlisted novel is a postapocalyptic story set a thousand years in the past. Written in a “shadow tongue” of Old English, it follows Buccmaster, a proud landowner bearing witness to the end of his world.
ALL THAT FOLLOWED by Gabriel Urza (A PW Best of Summer 2015 selection, a Summer/Fall 2015 Indies Introduce selection, and an August 2015 Indie Next pick)
It’s 2004 in Muriga, a quiet town in Spain’s northern Basque Country, a place with more secrets than inhabitants. Five years since the kidnapping and murder of a young local politician, everyone knows who pulled the trigger, but is the convicted man the only one to blame?
THE FOX WAS EVER THE HUNTER by Herta Müller, trans. by Philip Boehm
The Nobel Prize winner’s latest: Romania at the end of the Ceausescu regime, and one of these four—schoolteacher Adina, musician Paul; factory worker Clara, and Pavel, Clara’s lover—works for the secret police and is reporting on the others.
A CLUE TO THE EXIT by Edward St. Aubyn
Charlie Fairburn, successful screenwriter, ex-husband, and absent father, has been given six months to live. He resolves to stake half his fortune on a couple of turns of the roulette wheel and, to his agent’s disgust, to write a novel—about death.
FEAR OF DYING by Erica Jong
The bestselling author delivers her first book in 10 years—a sequel to her groundbreaking novel, FEAR OF FLYING.
History: Locale Histories
GIVE US THE BALLOT: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman (a Top 10 pick, an ALA Annual 2015 “Read ’N Rave” selection, and three starred reviews)
Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of passing the Voting Rights Act, Berman’s book provides a popular history of the right to vote in America, which, according to the starred PW review, is “not only easily understandable, but riveting.”
FLOODPATH: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles by Jon Wilkman
Wilkman combines urban history, a technological detective story, and life-and-death drama to tell the harrowing story of the St. Francis Dam break of 1928.
GANGSTER WARLORDS: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields, and the New Politics of Latin America by Ioan Grillo
Grillo, a Mexico City–based journalist, examines the men at the heads of drug cartels throughout Latin America: what drives them, what sustains their power, and how they can be brought down.
THE CRIME AND THE SILENCE: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime Jedwabne by Anna Bikont, trans. by Alissa Valles
A dual story of the massacre told through oral histories of survivors and witnesses, and a portrait of a Polish town coming to terms with its dark past.
THE OTHER PARIS by Luc Sante
Sante reveals the city’s hidden past and its seamy underside—populated by working and criminal classes that, though virtually extinct today, have shaped Paris over the past two centuries.
MASTERS OF EMPIRE: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America by Michael A. McDonnell
Historian McDonnell recounts the pivotal role the native peoples of the Great Lakes played in the history of North America.
CITY OF THORNS: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence
A humanitarian and journalist provides an insider account of Dabaab, in Kenya, the world’s largest and best-known refugee camp, and tells its human story.
Lifestyle: Down to Earth
THE BEST ADVICE IN SIX WORDS: Writers Famous and Obscure on Love, Sex, Money, Friendship, Family, Work, and Much More by Larry Smith (a Top 10 pick)
Even readers who normally shun self-help should be drawn to this collection of very brief advice for the wit promised by contributors such as Daniel Handler and Gary Shteyngart.
RUN TO LOSE: A Complete Guide to Weight Loss for Runners by Jennifer Van Allen and Pamela Nisevich Bede (a Top 10 pick)
The diet industry may thrive on continual innovation, but it’s hard to beat techniques that go back millennia, as outlined by the experts from Runner’s World magazine.
THE MICRONUTRIENT MIRACLE: The 28-Day Plan to Lose Weight, Increase Your Energy, and Reverse Disease by Jayson Calton, Ph.D., and Mira Calton, C.N.
An innovative guide to reversing illness and common ailments by tackling hidden nutritional deficiencies.
BEEKMAN 1802 STYLE: The Attraction of Opposites by Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell
With three successful cookbooks under their belts, the Beekman Boys partner with Country Living magazine to share their home design tips, tricks, and resources, along with an extensive collection of images from the couple’s historic farmhouse home. readmoreremove
Happy #BookBday to A FIGHTING CHANCE
Today we wish a very special #BookBday to Senator Elizabeth Warren's memoir, A FIGHTING CHANCE.
A most unlikely political star, Warren's introduction to government came when she was asked to go to Washington DC to help advise Congress on rewriting the bankruptcy laws. She fought for better bankruptcy laws for ten years and lost. She tried to hold the federal government accountable during the financial crisis but became a target of the big banks. She came up with the idea for a new agency designed to protect consumers from predatory bankers and was denied the opportunity to run it. Then finally, at age 62, she decided to run for elective office and won the most competitive—and watched—Senate race in the country.
In this passionate, funny, rabble-rousing book, Warren shows why she has chosen to fight tooth and nail for the middle class—and why she has become a hero to all those who believe that America’s government can and must do better for working families.
Early reviews are fabulous and national media is ramping up:
“In these pages, she displays a down-home charm and an effortless rapport with everyday people that makes her story more engaging than the average political tome. The book is more memoir than manifesto; Warren emerges as a committed advocate with real world sensibility, who tasted tough economic times at an early age and did not forget its bitterness.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
“This is a passionate memoir of one woman’s personal story and the larger story of corruption in financial circles and the need for reform that balances the interests of the American middle class against those of the corporate sector.” — Booklist, starred & boxed review
“CBS Sunday Morning” - click to watch
NPR's “Morning Edition” - click to listen
USA Today - click to read
The New Yorker, review by Jill Lapore - click to read
The Boston Globe - click to read
“Rachel Maddow” airing 4/22
“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” airing 4/22
“CBS This Morning” airing 4/22
“The View” airing 4/23
CNN's “Bill Weir” airing 4/23
“Morning Joe” airing 4/24 & 4/25
NPR's “On Point” airing 4/25
“This Week w/George Stephanopoulos” airing 4/27
The New York Times Book Review, to run 4/27
The Los Angeles Times, review to run 4/27
The Miami Herald, review to run 4/27
Parade, interview to run 4/27
The Washington Post, review to run 4/27
People Magazine, review to run 4/28 (5/1 issue)
Esquire Magazine, feature to run in the May issue
More Magazine, feature to run in the May issue
