Every year autumn promises to bring crisp weather, pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks and a stack of enjoyable reads to curl up in a wool blanket with. This fall, expect to find science fiction, politics, fantasy, crime and suspense hitting the bookshelves in several highly anticipated novels of 2010.
“Moonlight Mile” by Dennis Lehane
Written by acclaimed crime novelist Dennis Lehane, “Moonlight Mile” is a fast-paced follow-up to 1999’s “Gone Baby Gone” and picks up where the novel left off. When private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are asked to investigate the second disappearance of Amanda McCready, the same girl they found and returned to a neglectful mother 12 years earlier, the pair must visit the past and their most troubling case once again.
“Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self” by Danielle Evans
Danielle Evans’ debut is fresh and electric in “Before Your Suffocate Your Own Fool Self,” a collection of short stories about young African-American girls. Each vignette tells a different story — some of virginity, familial problems, peer pressure, broken hearts and bad decisions — but Evans effortlessly writes all with humility, grace, truth and humor. Evans is a professor of creative writing at AU, giving bookworms here even more reason to pick up her new collection.
“Freedom: A Novel” by Jonathan Franzen
“Freedom: A Novel” is one of the most anticipated novels of 2010, beaten only by Steig Larsson’s final novel in the Millennium Series. Jonathan Franzen’s book tells the story of a crumbling marriage between Walter and Peggy Berglund. It also delves into the story of their sex-crazed son Joey, and Walter’s best friend and former rock star whom Peggy is insanely attracted to. “Freedom: A Novel” is brilliant in its portrait of ordinary people and the relatable details of everyday life.
“I Am Number 4” by Pittacus Lore
“I Am Number Four,” the first of six novels in the “Lorien Legacies” series, may seem at face value like a rip-off of the 1956 film “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” or WB cult-classic “Roswell,” but it is quite the antithesis of most young adult novels on bookshelves today (ahem, “Twilight”). A fast-paced story about nine alien children who have fled their ravaged home planet and are now seeking refuge on Earth, “I Am Number Four” is a rich blend of science fiction, fantasy, romance and adventure that will please any sci-fi fan.
“Obama’s Wars” by Bob Woodward
As one of Washington’s most acclaimed investigative writers, Bob Woodward has written a sweeping account of President Barack Obama’s decisions on the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan in his new book, “Obama’s Wars.” Though writing little about the Iraq War, Woodward draws upon classified documents and in-depth interviews with top political figures to give a riveting account of the administration’s foreign policy.
“Room” by Emma Donaghue
Emma Donaghue’s “Room” is an imaginative masterpiece told through the voice of a five-year-old boy named Jack. At first glance, Jack is a normal child who enjoys coloring and playing games, but his life is extraordinary — he has lived all of it in a single room. His “Ma,” who has shared the 11-by-11 cell with him since his birth, views what Jack knows as home as a prison. Donaghue manages to take the difficult task of writing all of “Room” in Jack’s perspective and create a wonderful story of hope, survival, resilience and life.
kholliday@theeagleonline.com
