Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Coming Attractions

With fall just around the corner (or winter in Canada and the UK), it's time to start planning what to read while sitting in your easy chair and warming your tootsies by the fireplace (or in the fireplace in Canada and the UK). In addition to Stephen King's Under the Dome on November 10, I found authors of interest while surfing the electronic bookstores.

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The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver


Release date November 3, 2009
Harper Books
ISBN 978-0060852577
528 pages


There's no other information on this book right now, but could we possibly be due for a return to Africa? Or the ancient Indians of Mexico? How about a vampyre?


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Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett


Release date October 6, 2009
Harper Books
ISBN 978-0061161704
384 pages


Sir Terry is at it again: this is the 37th installment of the amazing Discworld series. A teaser:

Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork — not the old fashioned, grubby pushing and shoving, but the new, fast football with pointy hats for goalposts and balls that go gloing when you drop them. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they’re in the mood for trying everything else.
Something tells me that this isn't going to be a nice, quiet, orderly game of Quidditch.

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Last Night in Twisted River, by John Irving


Release date October 27, 2009
Random House Books
ISBN 978-1400063840
576 pages


Like King and Kinsolver, this new book by Irving has the potential to be a hit or a miss. A description:

In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable’s girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, forced to run from Coos County pursued by the implacable constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them.

In a story spanning five decades, Irving’s twelfth novel depicts the recent half-century in the United States as a living replica of Coos County, where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course.
Irving and his bears.

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Bloom County Complete Library, Volume 1, by Berkley Breathed


Release date October 29, 2009
Idea & Design Works LLC
ISBN 978-1600105319
288 pages


Now how in the world can anyone go wrong with Opus the Penguin? Next to Calvin & Hobbes, Bloom County is one of the all-time greats. It ran for nearly ten years (1980-1989) in 1200 newspapers, so I wonder how many volumes it will take for the entire series.

I met Berke 5 times at book signings, but Martha met him 10: as soon as our book was inscribed, she got right back in line again so she could stare at him—the woman had a very bad case of the hots for Mr. Breathed.

Me and my penguins.

So long for now,

10 comments:

Wandering Coyote said...

Yay - more Kingsolver! I loved The Poisonwood Bible!

Barlinnie said...

Last Night in Twisted River sounds interesting Charlie, I'll keep it in mind.

Pat said...

We still haven't had a summer but I've been dong a lot of curling up with a book lately.

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Don't you just hate it when you keep mistaking people's girlfriends for bears? Just ruins my day.

Okay, okay I admit I am kinda chuffed for a new Irving book.

Anonymous said...

Hi Charlie, there's another blog you may be interested in - http://existentialistman.blogspot.com/ - he's quite looking forward to "Under The Dome" this fall, as well.

Literature Crazy said...

Your tease about King's new book piqued my interest and I actually ended up picking up a book, Gone by Michael Grant, which seems like a YA with a similiar twist. The Irving one really whet my appetite.

Attila the Mom said...

It's Lust!!

Yep, gonna get that Irving book ASAP. LOL

Peter S. said...

Hi Charlie! I hope that Irving's new novel wouldn't have the doorstop proportions as his last one.

I did have an Irving phase. When I was in high school, I read everything until A Son of the Circus. I stopped reading Irving when he made a nasty remark about Evelyn Waugh. Hehehe.

Linda Koons said...

Kingsolver, and Irving, and bears, oh my! I'm doomed. And Pat Conroy has a new novel too. It's just like old times.

Mary Witzl said...

I LOVED Barbara Kingsolver's Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven, but I wasn't such a fan of Poisonwood Bible, which I didn't think was as soundly researched as it could have been. But those first two books of hers have made me a firm fan, and whenever I see her name, I reach out and BUY.

I liked Bloom County, but I LOOOOVE Calvin and Hobbes. So on your recommendation, I'll give this a go.