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Books to Watch For

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By Carole Reedy—

Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
(publication date October 6, 2026)

The most anticipated fall read, without a doubt, is Barbara Kingsolver’s Partita.

Kingsolver’s previous novel, Demon Copperhead, entertained and educated readers with its smooth narrative of a remote and forgotten part of the US where the pharmaceutical industry introduced addictive drugs. (To understand the facts of this tragedy, read Patrick Radden Keefe’s The Empire Of Pain.) Kingsolver received accolades around the world for her depiction of a modern-day David Copperfield.

This new novel is the story of a farm girl and her unfulfilled musical talent, class barriers, and love. At the heart of the story, however, is the importance of art and beauty.

Kingsolver herself had the talent to pursue the piano as a career, but when faced with the practicality of a life in music changed her college major to biology. She also had aspirations as a writer and studied journalism. As a child she read Tolstoy and played Bach on the piano.

Noted author Ann Patchett, whose new novel Whistler has just arrived, accompanied by rave reviews, on bookshelves, says of Kingsolver’s latest “She means to save us by telling us stories…She comes closer than anyone else I know.”

Country People by Daniel Mason
(publication date July 7, 2026)

Mason’s North Woods, published in 2024, was, for me, a mesmerizing read covering centuries of the inhabitants of a yellow house in a remote part of Massachusetts.

His latest story takes us on a family voyage to Vermont from California.

It’s described by the publisher as a “joyous, absurd, gorgeously-drawn exploration of marriage, family, friendship, storytelling and how people find connection in an increasingly fragmented world.”

We know Mason as a consummate storyteller that can deliver a story in a masterfully fluent manner.

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Ply by Hernan Diaz
(publication date September 29, 2026)

How we loved Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Trust, the story of a “successful” man and his wife told in three parts, the last part putting in perspective the first two in a most shocking way.

Though his previous novels dealt with the past, this one takes us to the distant future and questions the role of technology in our lives. It is a Dickensian-style family drama in addition to being a scientific thriller.

The novel takes place in a US city where the protagonist, an orphan, steals energy to feed the city’s vibrant music scene. This high-risk life shifts when he becomes involved in a scientific project that could change reality itself.

The Dying Light by Anne Cleeves
(publication date October 8)

Few of us will forget the isolation of the pandemic of 2020 for the gift of time that allowed us hours more to read. During the following three years many of us discovered various book series and authors that entertained and allowed us to get through those difficult days.

One such author was Anne Cleeves. Cleeves is a prolific writer, but the most striking aspect of her writing is the characterizations she creates. These people become part of the reader’s life. It may sound corny, but during the pandemic I talked by phone to friends in the US about characters in the novels as though we were discussing our own friends.

Cleeves’ Shetland series became so popular that it was made into a television series. The lure of an unknown part of the world added mystery to the mysteries! Tourists started putting the Shetland Islands on their travel bucket lists.

Cleeves recently introduced the Matthew Venn series (also called the Two Rivers series), which takes place in Devon England, where detective Venn lives with his husband. Again, the magic of these books lies in their characters rather than the plots.

Cleeves knows and understands her characters so well that she seems to describe them from memory rather than imagination.

Agrippa by Robert Harris
(publication date August 27, 2026)

Harris has always been recognized for his ability to combine personal drama and political machinations. His Conclave gripped book lovers as well as movie fans.

In Agrippa we return to the Roman Empire, where there is plenty of drama for writers. After the death of Julius Caesar, the 17-year-old Octavius becomes heir to the throne. His closest friend is Agrippa. For 20 years they rule the empire together.

Agrippa stirs up the past in his memoirs, which he is writing at age 50. Power and friendship: can they coexist? That is the question and theme.

Robert Harris’ books are very readable and offer glimpses into the political yet personal aspects of the histories he writes. I have become a recent fan of this prestigious writer of histories. His Pompeii hooked me as a new fan and follower.

The French Illusion by John Grisham
(publication date September 29, 2026)

Faithful readers to the genre have been reading John Grisham’s legal thrillers since 1991 when The Firm became an overnight sensation, spending 47 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. I remember vividly when it hit the shelves, touted as different and sketching new material and characters for a novel. Law school admissions may have risen at this time.

Grisham’s latest veers a little off the legal thriller genre, being more an international suspense novel. It’s clear Grisham enjoys reading the spy stories of John Le Carre, Ken Follett, and Robert Ludlum. This is his first attempt in following the “craftsmanship of some of these international suspense novelists.”

This new plot starts with the kidnapping of a newlywed couple in the French countryside, which rapidly turns into an international espionage plot.

The Disappearers by Marlon James
(publication date September 1, 2026)

It would be difficult to forget James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings, which brought James the recognition he deserved when his novel won the Man Booker Prize in 2015. This new story continues in the genre. Again taking place in Jamaica, it begins with eight gay men in Jamaica during the 1980s.

These eight men, actors, are unfamiliar to each other but share the experience of being gay, including the hatred and bigotry they endure. How they handle it varies among them: some try to forget, others embrace their rage, and still others simply vanish.

James’ novels are enormous in every aspect.

Switzy by Emma Cline
(publication date October 9, 2026)

What is a life? What remains when your goals and accomplishments have been realized? These appear to be the unanswerable questions Cline explores in this story of an aging man.

It is quite an original story, probing the depths of human consciousness, “revealing what a man is left with when the accomplishments and compromises that have defined him, and the illusions he’s relied on, vanish.”

The book follows its main character, David, with his thoughts and memories, as he flies to Zurich with stops in Paris, England, etc. The unusualness of the premise is alluring, especially when tackled by a writer as deft as Cline, who we remember for her novel The Girls, which was based on the Charles Manson entourage of the 70s.

The Newer World by Sebastian Barry
(publication date September 8, 2026)

My book club in Mexico City, whose members represent a number of nationalities, enthusiastically embraces any book written by the Irish writer Sebastian Barry. His novels appeal to not only the Irish and Brits, but also to Americans and Mexicans.

Barry is a consummate storyteller. His newest takes place in the 19th century, starting in rural Tennessee where the main character, a Confederate soldier and wanted man, heads for Nashville but finds himself on a detour to Victorian England. It’s a story of how we survive and at what cost along the way.

Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel
(publication date September 15, 2026)

This timely novel by the noteworthy author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility should gain widespread attention in the literary world this fall.

Starting out in Los Angeles 2031 with the collapse of the US, the story continues not only from a splintered America but also expanding to include Paris and Greece and a colony on the moon.

Story is the lifeblood of a novel, and this year appears to be packed with novels that are faithful to this premise.

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Something For Everyone: An Eclectic Selection of Newly Published Books

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By Carole Reedy

This month we offer a variety of genres by noted authors to satisfy the full spectrum of our readers’ tastes. Perhaps a title outside your comfort zone will pique your interest too?

All books have been recently published except for the last two, which will be published in May.

EXOTIC AND DOMESTIC STORIES
The Vanishing Point by Paul Theroux
From his books The Great Railway Bazaar (1975, my personal favorite) to Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (2008), Theroux has taken us along on his adventures across the globe.

Followers of this prestigious writer can’t get enough, and Theroux continues his commitment to the excitement and wonder of new places in this fresh collection of short stories. The title refers to “a moment when seemingly all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther, yet must deal with the implications.”

Theroux’s short stories are reminiscent of the styles of Maupassant and O. Henry, complete with surprise endings.

GAY FICTION
Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
The premise of the novel, as you may have guessed, is a reunion after many years of mother and son. Readers have been both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised by the trajectory the book takes, which should be no surprise coming from this established writer of fiction.

Haslett’s first book, a short-story collection titled You Are Not a Stranger Here (2002), and his second novel, Imagine Me Gone (2016), were both finalists for two major awards, the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Maybe the third time is the charm.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE
Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman
I can’t believe I’m writing this: Open Season is book number 40 of the popular and obviously compelling series starring the duo of psychologist Alex Delaware and homicide cop Milos Sturgis. The juxtaposition of classic crime procedures and the mysteries of human behavior make the series incomparable and compelling. In this title, the action takes place in Los Angeles where brutal and mystifying murders occur.

Kellerman’s novels consistently appear on The New York Times bestseller list, and Kellerman himself received a PhD in child psychology at age 24. His first published book was Psychological Aspects of Childhood Cancer (1980). In 1985 he published his first Alex Delaware book, When the Bough Breaks. And the rest is history.

MEMOIR
Source Code by Bill Gates
Memoirs, for me, are much more readable and interesting than autobiographies, which can tend to be self-aggrandizing. A review in The Guardian calls Gates’ memoir “refreshingly frank. There is general gratitude for influential mentors, and a wry self-deprecation throughout.”

This book takes us only through Gates’ childhood and adolescence. Stay tuned for later life discoveries in the next volume. Of his childhood, he writes that “if I were growing up today, I would probably be considered on the autism spectrum,” and now regrets some of his early behavior, though “I wouldn’t change the brain I was given for anything.”

ESTABLISHED WRITER
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
“Joyful” is the description The Guardian gives this latest novel from Tyler, prolific writer of books and short stories. Three Days in June is one of her shorter books, easily demonstrating her ability to bring us a “feel good” read without being insincere or unctuous.

A wedding is central to the story, the estranged parents of the bride the main players. Readers of Tyler know what she can do with this combination.

My favorite Anne Tyler novel is Breathing Lessons, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1989. In her review in The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani provides insight into Tyler’s talent, which continues to ensure her position as a best-selling writer:

“Tyler is able to examine the conflict, felt by nearly all her characters, between domesticity and freedom, between heredity and independence. In addition, she is able, with her usual grace and magnanimity, to chronicle the ever-shifting covenants made by parents and children, husbands and wives, and in doing so, to depict both the losses – and redemptions – wrought by the passage of time.”

LITERARY PUZZLE TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH
Death Take Me by Cristina Rivera Garza
This is listed as the most anticipated book of the year by The New York Times, Esquire, Ms Magazine, and Lit Hub. You may remember Rivera Garza won the Pulitzer Prize for Liliana’s Invincible Summer. She also is the head of the Spanish creative writing PhD program at the University of Houston.

The plot of this mystery crime novel seems topsy turvy in that the victims (a word ironically always feminine in the Spanish language) are always male. Castrated men are found accompanied by lines of verse at their sides. A professor and a detective are the investigators of these mysterious crimes.

Fellow author Yuri Herrera says “Cristina Rivera Garza does not respect what is expected of a writer, of a novel, of language. she is an agitator.” That comment may be enough to motivate one to read this mysterious novel.

SEX MEMOIR
The Loves of My Life by Edmund White
Of the hundreds of books I have read, one of my favorites is The Flaneur by Edmund White. Subtitled “A Stroll through the Paradoxes of Paris,” White takes us to little-known bookstores and cafes during the journey. You don’t have to be a Francophile to love this book. After reading it my friends and I started referring to our daily walks and meetings as “flaneuring.”

White has been a prominent writer for many years and has many bestsellers under his belt. He is known as a groundbreaking author of gay fiction and has been awarded many literary prizes, among them Lambda Literary’s Visionary Award, the National Book Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. France named him Chevalier (and later Officier) de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993.

Per the title, this book is obviously highly personal and honest, all written in his incomparable brilliant style.

CRIME FICTION
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Most readers are aware of King’s well-deserved success. From his early novels in the 1970s (The Shining, Carrie, Salem’s Lot and The Stand) to 50 years later (Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Flinch and You Like It Darker), King’s books have sold 350 million copies worldwide and provided tremendous reading pleasure. His oeuvre includes 60 novels and a plethora of short stories. On Writing, his 2010 book was called “part memoir, part masterclass” by amazon and a “one-of-a-kind classic” by the Wall Street Journal.

It appears that King’s most recent book will feature a new cast of characters and some old favorites such as Holly Gibney. There are two plot lines: one about a killer on a revenge mission and another about a vigilante who is targeting a celebrity speaker.

HISTORICAL NOVEL
My Name is Emilia de Valle by Isabella Allende
Allende, the most widely read living writer in the Spanish language, was born in Peru but raised in Chile. Her father was first cousin to President Salvador Allende of Chile.

Readers around the world are awaiting the publication of this, her latest book. Here is a plot summary from the author:

“Eager to prove herself as a young writer and journalist, Emilia Del Valle seizes an opportunity to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. While there, Emilia meets her estranged father and delves into the violent confrontation in the country where her roots lie. As she discovers more about Chile and falls in love with a fellow journalist, the war escalates and Emilia finds herself in extreme danger, fearing for her life and questioning her identity and her destiny. I can’t wait for you to meet Emilia.”

DYSTOPIAN FICTION
Gliff by Ali Smith
What is a gliff? Smith dedicates a page and a half to describing the various meanings. Judge for yourself which is intended when reading the book.

Smith speculates a near future in which the world is experiencing authoritarian control. The book is filled with philosophical conundrums such as meaning and meaningless.

One reader reflects: “GLIFF is a treat for the reader who enjoys wordplay, and absurdity that invokes madness and heartbreak.”