Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
Published by: Riverhead
Publication Date: September 29th, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In a dreary seaside town in England, Annie loves Duncan—or thinks she does, because she always has. Duncan loves Annie, but then, all of a sudden, he doesn’t anymore. So Annie stops loving Duncan, and starts getting her own life.
She sparks an e-mail correspondence with Tucker Crowe, a reclusive Dylanesque singer- songwriter who stopped making music twenty-two years ago, and who is also Duncan’s greatest obsession. A surprising connection is forged between two lonely people who are looking for more out of what they’ve got. Tucker’s been languishing (and he’s unnervingly aware of it), living in rural Pennsylvania with what he sees as his one hope for redemption amid a life of emotional, familial, and artistic ruin—his young son, Jackson. But then there’s also the material he’s about to release to the world, an acoustic, stripped-down version of his greatest album, Juliet, titled Juliet, Naked. And he’s just been summoned across the Atlantic with Jackson to face his multitude of ex-wives and children (both just discovered and formerly neglected), in the same country where his intriguing new Internet friend resides.
What happens when a washed-up musician looks for another chance? And miles away, a restless, childless woman looks for a change? Juliet, Naked is a powerfully engrossing, humblingly humorous novel about music, love, loneliness, and the struggle to live up to one’s promise."
Nick Hornby going back to what Nick Hornby does best, complex interpersonal relationships and music! After having spent the last few years doing his column for The Believer, which was awesome, and writing a Young Adult novel, Slam, again awesome, he's back on more familiar territory for his fans. Sure to be another modern classic you should definitely pick up his newest book for the author of High Fidelity.
Nick Hornby is also going to be touring the United States with this book and I strongly recommend you go. I got to see him speak when he was promoting Slam and it was a great experience, didn't hurt getting my books signed and talking about the cover design for Speaking with the Angel.
September 29th in New York
Barnes & Noble – Union Square, 7:00 PM
September 30th in Boston
Brookline Booksmith, 6:00 PM
Location: Coolidge Theater
October 1st in Washington, DC
Politics & Prose, 7:00 PM
October 6th in Los Angeles
Book Soup, 7:30 PM
Location: Skirball Cultural Center
October 7th in El Cerrito, CA
Barnes & Noble – El Cerrito, 7:00 PM
October 8th in San Francisco
City Arts & Lectures, 8:00 PM
Location: Herbst Theater
October 9th in Seattle
Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:00 PM
Location: Seattle Public Library
Soulless: The Parasol Protectorate Book 1 by Gail Carriger
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: September 29th, 2009
Format: Paperback, 382 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.
Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.
With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?
SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking."
This book has everything, parasols, the supernatural, tea, parasols, werewolves, vampires, did I mention parasols? (After Amelia Peabody and Miss Gwen, parasols are something to look forward to!) The cover has that perfect blend of darkness with just a hint of Steampunk, love the goggles on her top hat, The Doctor would approve! If the authors website and bio are anything to go by, this will be a wonderful debut with wit and just the right level of self deprecation. Even more exciting, Gail Corriger will be doing a guest blog right here in the near future! How exciting is that!?! You don't have to go traipsing about the net, the author comes right to you! Although...her website IS cool, so perhaps you should check that out as well...BUT be sure to keep your eyes peeled, she'll be here shortly! Did a hear a cloak rustle? Perhaps a parasol is leaning against the stoop that wasn't there before...
Gail will also being appearing at Borderlands Books in San Fransisco on October 11th and 28th.
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Published by: Scribner
Publication Date: September 29th, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To BuyThe official patter:"Six years after the phenomenal success of
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger has returned with a spectacularly compelling and haunting second novel set in and around Highgate Cemetery in London.
When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt; they only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers -- with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another.
The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery. They come to know the building's other residents. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword puzzle setter suffering from crippling obsessive-compulsive disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive former lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including -- perhaps -- their aunt, who can't seem to leave her old apartment and life behind.
Niffenegger weaves a captivating story in
Her Fearful Symmetry: about love and identity, about secrets and sisterhood, and about the tenacity of life -- even after death."
Audrey Niffenegger has become vastly famous for basically writing one book,
The Time Traveler's Wife. But her longed for second novel, I'm not counting
The Adventuress or
Three Incestuous Sister being not really novels and more graphic in nature, finally arrives this week. This book looks far more interesting to me being set in England and revolving around a set of bizarre characters living near Highgate Cemetary. I'm sure to read it and I hope you will too.
Audrey Niffenegger will be doing a few appearances for
Her Fearful Symmetry across the US.
Septmeber 29th @ 6:00PMNewberry Library
Chicago, Illinois
September 30th @ 7:30PMThe Swedish Museum
Chicago, Illinois
October 1st @ 6:00PMBoston Public Library
Boston, Massachusetts
October 2nd @ 7:00PMRJ Julia
Madison, Connecticut
October 5th @ 7:00PMBarnes & Noble Union Square
New York, New York
October 29th @ 7:00PMLocation TBA
Washington, DC
November 2nd @ 7:30PMBorders
Baileys Crossroads, Virginia
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Published by: Bloomsbury USA
Publication Date: September 29th, 2009
Format: Paperback, 864 Pages
To BuyThe official patter:
"English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.
But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.
All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative-the very opposite of Mr Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.
Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more. "
A new re-issue of the wondrous
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. No, back off, stop picking on me, I need this edition too, look shiny new introduction by Neil Gaiman. You can never have too many copies of this book...really you just can't, it's total impossibility. That is not my bookshelf groaning in the distance!
Changeless, The Parasol Protectorate Book 2 by Gail Carriger
