The November 2021 Prepub Alert posts are also available as:

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FICTION

Mystery, History & the Police

Atkins, Ace. Robert B. Parker’s Bye Bye Baby. Putnam. Nov. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9780593328514. $28. CD/downloadable. MYSTERY

Atkins continues to uphold Robert B. Parker’s tradition, giving us another spin with the redoubtable PI Spenser. No plot details yet, but the action ranges from Boston to the Bahamas, and the cover’s sparkly jewels suggest trouble in high places.

Eriksson, Kjell. The Deathwatch Beetle. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 288p. ISBN 9781250766168. $27.99. MYSTERY/POLICE PROCEDURAL

Never mind that she’s no longer a police inspector, Ann Lindell can’t help but get involved when she learns that a young woman who vanished four years previously from the Swedish isle of Gräsö has been seen alive. Cecilia’s remote parents and Nils Lindberg, the local scapegrace who crushed on Cecilia as a teenager, have secrets to disclose, and it appears someone on the island is out for revenge. With a 35,000-copy first printing.

Evanovich, Janet. Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight. Atria. Nov. 2021. ISBN 9781982154875. $28.99. CD. MYSTERY

Would you believe that Evanovich is back with another Stephanie Plum mystery, 28th in a series that has claimed 24 No. 1 New York Times best sellers in 25 years? No plot details, but the game is on! With a one-million-copy first printing.

Fletcher, Jessica & Terrie Farley Moran. Murder, She Wrote: Debonair in Death. Berkley. Nov. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9780593333624. $26. MYSTERY

In the latest addition to this USA Today best-selling series, based on the hit television show featuring Jessica Fletcher, Jessica gets into the act when her favorite technician at the local nail salon is accused of murdering Nelson Penzell, co-owner of a fancy-schmancy art and treasure store in Cabot Cove, ME. Coauthor Moran is just getting involved in the long-running series.

Meyer, Nicholas. The Return of the Pharaoh: From the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 272p. ISBN 9781250788207. $25.99. CD. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

In early 1900s Egypt, where he’s gone because the climate might ease his wife’s tuberculosis, Dr. John Watson encounters his old friend Sherlock Holmes in disguise. Holmes is investigating the disappearance of an English duke—not the first British aristocrat with a passion for Egyptology to vanish with the sand-gritty wind—and they join forces with celebrated archaeologist Howard Carter to discover what is happening. From the author of the enduring The Seven Per Cent Solution; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Perry, Anne. A Christmas Legacy. Ballantine. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9780593159392. $21. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

In Perry’s latest holiday mystery (following 18 previous titles), Thomas and Charlotte Pitt’s former maid Gracie has no desire to return to service. But when a friend is thrown out of her job without references, evidently because she knows something she shouldn’t, Gracie takes the job and discovers a duplicitous couple eager to send the ailing grandmother in their care on her way. Gracie is a fan favorite, and Perry seems always to light up the holidays.

Perry, Thomas. The Left-Handed Twin: A Jane Whitefield Novel. Mysterious: Norton. Nov. 2021. NAp. ISBN 9781613162590. $25.95. MYSTERY

Jane Whitefield helps people disappear, and her latest client is a young woman from Los Angeles who cheated on her boyfriend, who then made her watch him murder the man with whom she had been involved. Despite her testimony, he was acquitted, and his Russian mafia contacts are trailing her—and Jane. Edgar Award winner Perry’s first Jane Whitefield novel in seven years.

Robb, Candace. The Riverwoman's Dragon. Severn House. Nov. 2021. 256p. ISBN 9781780291369. $28.99. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

It’s 1375, and long-standing Robb protagonist Owen Archer returns home from London to find York upended by a new physician who is dead-set against wise woman Magda Digby, who has helped so many people in the intervening years. Then Magda is accused of murder after she discovers a body floating in the river. A lovely series for medieval fans, and I am one.

Thomas, Sherry. Miss Moriarty, I Presume? Berkley. Nov. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9780593200582. pap. $16. Downloadable. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

Now this is unexpected: Criminal mastermind Moriarty himself wants Charlotte Holmes to find his missing daughter. It appears that she is somehow associated with a mysterious occult community, but perhaps this is just a trap. From a two-time RITA Award winner who has gone the mystery route; this is sixth in the “Lady Sherlock” series.

 

Last Mysteries: Three Essential Titles

Griffiths, Elly. The Midnight Hour. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2021. 352p. ISBN 9780358424161. $25; pap. Mariner. ISBN 9780358418634. $14.99. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

Just-launched PI Emma Holmes and partner Sam Collins already have a case: they must discover who poisoned the theater-impresario husband of retired music-hall star Verity Malone, herself suspected of the crime. (No wonder she was so anxious to hire them.) The problem: the Brighton police are also on the case, and the police superintendent is Emma's husband. From 2020 Edgar Award winner Griffiths; with a 35,000-copy paperback and 3,000-copy hardcover first printing.

Kent, Kathleen. The Pledge. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Nov. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780316280457. $28. MYSTERY

Det. Betty Rhyzyk has just been promoted to sergeant, but has she got problems. A hostage stand-off lands her on the phone with notorious cartel leader The Knife, who’s angry at being challenged for dominance of Dallas’s streets by ruthless cult leader Evangeline Roy. Evangeline happens to have it in for Betty, so who better as bait to draw out the newbie competitor and solve the current crisis. Kent wraps up her Edgar-nominated trilogy.

Limón, Martin. War Women. Soho Crime. Nov. 2021. NAp. ISBN 9781641292795. $27.95. MYSTERY

Senior NCO in charge of the U.S. 8th Army’s classified documents in 1970s South Korea, Sgt. First Class Cecil B. Harvey has vanished—and so has some top-secret material that was in his charge. Now Sgts. George Sueño and Ernie Bascom have another case to solve, even as they seek to spring rules-challenging Overseas Observer reporter Katie Byrd Worthington from jail while persuading her to pull a controversial story. Next in a top-notch series.

 

Hot-Shot Thrillers

Baldacci, David. Mercy. Grand Central. Nov. 2021. 416p. ISBN 9781538719725. $29. CD/downloadable. THRILLER

FBI Agent Atlee Pine is back in her fourth sojourn, and as the title suggests she is continuing her search for information regarding her twin sister, Mercy, abducted as a child. No plot details yet, but the one-million-copy first printing speaks volumes.

Cameron, Marc. Tom Clancy Chain of Command. Putnam. Nov. 2021. 512p. ISBN 9780593188163. $29.95. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. THRILLER

In President Jack Ryan’s latest outing, a truly evil pharmaceutical billionaire spends big bucks supporting various radical groups whose violence is meant to distract officials as he floods the U.S. market with counterfeit drugs. Now that people are dying of bad medicine, he sets in motion the ultimate power grab, which means getting rid of the president himself.

Connelly, Michael. The Dark Hours. Little, Brown. Nov. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780316485647. $29. THRILLER

On a raucous New Year’s Eve in Hollywood, a friendly neighborhood auto shop owner lies dead in the midst of a street party, and LAPD Detective Renée Ballard quickly determines that he was not killed by a stray bullet among those traditionally shot skyward in celebration as midnight chimes. She also sees connections to an unsolved murder once investigated by the legendary detective Harry Bosch, and soon they are teaming up to solve the cases together. With a 750,000-copy first printing.

Cussler, Dirk. Clive Cussler’s The Devil’s Sea. Putnam. Nov. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780593419649. $29. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. ACTION & ADVENTURE

Adventures featuring NUMA Director Dirk Pitt and his buddy Al Giordano remain the top sellers in the Cussler universe, and they surface only once every two years, so NUMA fans need to grab this title now. Clive Cussler passed away in February 2020; son Dirk has coauthored eight previous Dirk Pitt titles.

Deaver, Jeffery. The Midnight Lock. Putnam. Nov. 2021. 448p. ISBN 9780525536000. $28. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. THRILLERS

The Locksmith: he’s New York City’s latest criminal mastermind, capable of defeating any bolted door or security system, as he demonstrates by breaking into an apartment and rearranging the owner’s personal possessions while she sleeps. The NYPD knows that much worse is to come, and forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme and NYPD Det. Amelia Sachs are on the case. But when the police fire Rhyme as a consultant owing to a mistake made in an earlier case, he must operate in secret. Fans have waited three years for the next Rhyme/Sachs thriller.

Follett, Ken. Never. Viking. Nov. 2021. ISBN 9780593300015. $36. CD/downloadable. THRILLER

In the Sahara, two intelligence agents counter drug-smuggling terrorists even as a young widow makes her unauthorized way to Europe. Meanwhile, an ambitious Chinese official goes up against his government’s old guard, and terrorist attacks, illegal arms trading, and dirty politics push U.S. President Pauline Green into risky territory. Arguing that no government wanted to fight World War I—leaders instead got tripped up on alliances—Follett considers how world war could happen today. Follett’s three most recent novels have debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times best sellers list.

Grisham, John. The Judge’s List. Doubleday. Oct. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780385546027, $29.95. CD/downloadable. THRILLERS

In The Whistler, Lacy Stoltz, an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct, challenged a crime syndicate paying off a crooked judge. Now she’s back, facing the possibility that a judge is committing a crime far worse—murder.

Lescroart, John. The Missing Piece. Atria. Nov. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9781982170493. $27. CD. THRILLER

Exonerated after years in prison for the rape and murder of his girlfriend, lowlife Paul Riley is released—and is promptly dispatched himself. Wes Farrell, the DA who helped convict Paul, is now practicing law with the redoubtable Dismas Hardy and agrees to represent the father of the murdered woman, a main suspect in the new case. Then the father vanishes, and Dismas and Wes send PI Abe Glitsky after him through a landscape of grieving parents, crooked cops, and determined vigilantes. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

McDermid, Val. 1979. Atlantic Monthly. Oct. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9780802159021. $27. THRILLER

Eager to move beyond the women’s stories her Glasgow newspaper keeps assigning her, Allie Burns begins working with aspiring investigative journalist Danny Sullivan. They find big stories, from international tax fraud to a Scottish terrorist group planning to wreak havoc before the devolution referendum. But while they make waves, they also make them enemies. Then Danny is murdered. From Cartier Diamond Dagger Award McDermid.

Morrissey, Hannah. Hello, Transcriber. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9781250795953. $27.99. THRILLER

Police transcriber Hazel Greenlee wants out of crime-slicked Black Harbor, WI, so when a neighbor confesses to hiding the body of an overdose victim and the police suspect that a nefarious drug dealer called the Candy Man is responsible for the death, Hazel follows the case eagerly. She’s collecting material for a novel, but her obsessiveness could be wrecking her life—and placing her squarely in the killer’s sights. Let’s hope that debut novelist Morrissey, a police transcriber herself, was more careful. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Patterson, James. Fear No Evil. Little, Brown. Nov. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780316499149. $29. THRILLER

Deep in the Montana wilderness, Dr. Alex Cross and Det. John Sampson are pursuing the bloodthirsty bad guy who has been stalking Alex’s family for years when they find themselves targeted by two rival teams of assassins. And both teams are working for Alex’s nemesis. Will our heroes get out alive? Look for special promotions throughout 2021 as the publisher launches the Year of Cross to celebrate 40 years’ worth of adventure. With a 760,000-copy first printing.

Scott, Kieran. Wish You Were Gone. Gallery: S. & S. Nov. 2021. 352p. ISBN 9781982153984. $27. THRILLER/DOMESTIC

When Emma Walsh’s husband, James, died after smashing his way through the back wall of their garage in his big-bucks sports car, he left behind a reputation as a stellar family man and business owner. Unfortunately, that reputation hid the alcoholic rages and blackouts that kept Emma and her teenage children cowering, and other secrets James shrouded now will out in dangerous ways. New York Times best-selling children’s/YA author Scott enters the adult arena with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Willink, Jocko. Final Spin. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 224p. ISBN 9781250276858. $26.99. CD. THRILLER

Sick of being a lowly stock clerk, living at home, and having to watch after his brother, Johnny connives with best friend Goat to address all these issues at once. Soon the two are learning that being on the run is not so much fun. From retired U.S. Navy SEAL Willink, the No. 1 New York Times best-selling author of leadership titles and juvenile fiction and creator of the popular Jocko Podcast.

 

From Akpan to Yun: Literary Fiction

Akpan, Uwem. New York, My Village. Norton. Nov. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780393881424. $27.95. LITERARY

In this much-anticipated debut novel, Nigerian editor Ekong Udousoro is assembling a collection of stories about the Biafran War that brutally rocked his country when he wins a publishing fellowship to continue his work in New York. He learns plenty, good and bad, about publishing (often heartlessly commercial) and about America’s inherent racism. From the author of the Commonwealth Prize and PEN Open Book Award winner Say You're One of Them, an Oprah Winfrey Book Club pick.

Ball, Bethany. The Pessimists. Grove. Oct. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9780802158888. $27. LITERARY

In a posh, pretty Connecticut town, longtime residents Richard and Margot look like the perfect couple but are fragile and faithless underneath, while New Yorker escapees Gunter and Rachel find themselves bored silly and the popular Tripp and Virginia are secret survivalists stockpiling guns in the basement. They are all connected by their association with prestigious Petra School, which serves as backdrop as their lives implode. From the author of What To Do About the Solomons, finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize finalist.

Bola, JJ. The Selfless Act of Breathing. Atria. Nov. 2021. 272p. ISBN 9781982175566. $27. CD. LITERARY

British-Congolese teacher Michael Kabongo is popular with his students but remains abundantly frustrated that he cannot correct the social injustices they endure—and that distorts the lives of young Black men worldwide. A terrible loss revives memories of his father’s violent death and the burdens of having been a refugee, and he impulsively decides to travel to America, making friends and partying his way across the country in hopes of finding a new self disburdened of a painful past. From Kinshasa-born, London-raised poet/novelist and UNHCR Ambassador Bola; with a 60,000-copy first printing.

Johnson, Jocelyn Nicole. My Monticello. Holt. Oct. 2021. 224p. ISBN 9781250807151. $26.99. CD. LITERARY/SHORT STORIES

In Johnson’s title novella, a young Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings leads a group escaping white supremacist violence in Charlottesville and taking refuge in Jefferson’s plantation home. Also included: “Control Negro,” about a university professor carrying out an experiment about racism with his own son as subject, which appeared in Best American Short Stories 2018 by guest editor Roxane Gay and read by LeVar Burton as part of PRI’s Selected Shorts series. A major debut collection; with a 250,000-copy first printing.

Keneally, Thomas. The Dickens Boy. Atria. Nov. 2021. 416p. ISBN 9781982169145. $28. CD. LITERARY

The tenth child of world-renowned author Charles Dickens, Edward has been stumbling through life when he is sent to Australia to make something of himself. In the Outback, amid colonials and Aborigine peoples, ex-convicts, ex-soldiers, bushrangers, and stock agents, he tries to show himself—and the father whose books he has never read—that he can succeed. Once again, the author of Schindler’s List aims to vivify real-life figures; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

King, Lily. Five Tuesdays in Winter. Grove. Nov. 2021. 240p. ISBN 9780802158765. $27. LITERARY

King follows up the multi-best-booked Writers & Lovers with her first-ever story collection, featuring pieces about finding love, finding oneself, and finding that sometimes you can’t mend the tears in life’s fabric. A neglected teenage boy is given the attention he needs from two college students hired by his parents to housesit, while a proud and stubborn nonagenarian angrily acknowledges his powerlessness in his granddaughter's hospital room. Half the stories here have been published before, while half are newly minted—and all should be great reading.

Krasznahorkai, László. Chasing Homer. New Directions. Nov. 2021. 96p. tr. from Hungarian by John Batki. ISBN 9780811227971. $19.95. LITERARY

In this latest from the challenging Krasznahorkai, winner of the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature for Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize for his oeuvre, a hunted creature flees frantically southward through Europe, seeking to escape death. With full-color paintings by Max Neumann and a rattlingly percussive score by Szilveszter Miklós associated with each chapter and accessed via QR codes.

McCarthy, Tom. The Making of Incarnation. Knopf. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9780593319871. $27.95. Downloadable. LITERARY

Informed by the motion studies of Lillian Gilbreth (famously the mother in the memoir Cheaper by the Dozen), this novel from two-time Booker Prize short-listed, inaugural Windham-Campbell award winner McCarthy stars insomniac Anthony Garnett. His frustrated sheep-counting leads to a schematic about tracking sheep’s movements as individuals within a herd, creating branching vectors of need, fear, and closeness. Soon he is inspired to form a company called Pantaray, PLC, referencing a fragment from Heraclitus, who proclaimed that we could never step into the same river twice.

Park, Sang Young. Love in the Big City. Grove. Nov. 2021. 240p. tr. from Korean by Anton Hur. ISBN 9780802158789. $25. LITERARY

An explosive best seller in South Korea, Park’s first novel to appear in English features the fun-at-all-costs Young, who fits in school between his indulgent enjoyment of Seoul’s nightlife and the most promising Tinder matches. Both roommate and female best friend, Jaehee joins him in his escapades, but eventually she moves on for a more settled life, and Young is left tending to his mother and pursuing a string of men—including perhaps the love of his life.

Savas, Aysegül. White on White. Riverhead. Nov. 2021. 192p. ISBN 9780593330517. $26. Downloadable. LITERARY

Moving to an unidentified city to research Gothic nudes, a young female student rents an apartment from a woman named Agnes, who soon returns from the city where she actually lives and moves into the upstairs studio. The student strikes up a friendship with Agnes, who seems eager to talk about her youth, family, and ideas of art, but soon it is evident that Agnes is actually falling apart and that the line between contentment and chaos is very thin indeed. From the author of the LJ-starred Walking on the Ceiling.

Shafak, Elif. The Island of Missing Trees. Bloomsbury. Nov. 2021. 368p. ISBN 9781635578591. $27. LITERARY

On the divided island of Cyprus, Greek Cypriot Kostas and Turkish Cypriot Defne must hide their love by meeting secretly at a taverna that has a fig tree pushing its way through the damaged roof. Separated by the 1974 war but eventually reunited, they take a clipping from the tree to London, where it blossoms into a tree of its own in their garden—a symbol to their daughter, Ada, of the homeland she is trying to understand. From the Booker Prize short-listed British-Turkish author; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Shteyngart, Gary. Our Country Friends. Random. Nov. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9781984855121. $28. lrg. prnt. Downloadable. LITERARY

In March 2020, as pandemic descends, a group of friends bringing along their friends gathers for the duration at a country home. They range from a Russian-born novelist and his psychiatrist wife to an aspiring Indian American writer, a successful Korean American app developer, and a movie star who disrupts everything. Love and friendship flare and sputter during the six months that unfold here. Following Shteyngart’s multi-best-booked Lake Success.

Vargas Llosa, Mario. Harsh Times. Farrar. Nov. 2021. 304p. tr. from Spanish by Adrian Nathan West. ISBN 9780374601232. $28. LITERARY

Nobel Prize winner Vargas Llosa uses fiction to plumb the turmoil surrounding the 1954 overthrow of democratically elected Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz with the support of the CIA, ostensibly because his policies would facilitate the spread of communism but in fact because he hoped to initiate agricultural reform and the taxation of the United Fruit Company. The story follows multiple characters, from Árbenz to United Fruit Company founder Sam Zemurray, and bears comparison to Vargas Llosa’s The Feast of the Goat, about the fall of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

White, Edmund. A Previous Life. Bloomsbury. Nov. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9781635577273. $26. LITERARY

Sicilian aristocrat/musician Ruggero and his younger American wife, Constance, have long refused to discuss their earlier life experiences, honesty having wrecked their previous marriages. Now, however, they are writing their Confessions, with Constance revealing multiple marriages to older men and Ruggero chronicling a lifetime’s worth of affairs with women and men, including an author named Edmund White. From the winner of the 2019 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation; with a 45,000-copy first printing.

Wideman, John Edgar. Look for Me and I’ll Be Gone: Stories. Scribner. Nov. 2021. 192p. ISBN 9781982148942. $26. LITERARY/SHORT STORIES

One story here is presented as a letter to singer Freddie Jackson, whose “You Are My Lady” plays on the radio as a man drives his son to prison, while another contemplates James Baldwin’s Evidence of Things Not Seen, addressing the Atlanta murders from 1979 to 1981 and opening with a “why-did-the chicken-cross-the-road” riff that turns bleak. In fact, all the pieces in MacArthur Fellow Wideman’s sixth collection push the boundaries of format as they explore family, loss, and America’s ongoing racial divide. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

Winman, Sarah. Still Life. Putnam. Oct. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780593330753. $27. lrg. prnt. Downloadable. LITERARY

In 1944 Tuscany, English soldier Ulysses ducks into the wine cellar of a deserted villa, where he meets middle-aged art historian Evelyn, there to salvage paintings as the bombs fall. She’s there, too, to recall E.M. Forster, who haunts a narrative that unfolds over decades as this chance encounter shapes Ulysses’ life. Following the Costa short-listed Tin Man.

Yun, Jung. O Beautiful. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781250274328. $27.99. LITERARY

Korean American journalist Elinor Hanson’s first big magazine assignment takes her to North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields, not far from the town where she grew up. She’s thus compelled to confront a troubled childhood and her place in a troubled land, assessing race and gender issues as she surveys a boomtown gone wild with outsiders, mostly men. Meanwhile, a woman’s disappearance weaves its way through the narrative. An in-house favorite (for me, too) that follows Yun’s debut, the perceptive Shelter, finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award; with a 40,000-copy first printing.

 

Spotlight: Diana Gabaldon’s “Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone”

Gabaldon, Diana. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone. Delacorte. Nov. 2021. 912p. ISBN 9781101885680. $36. CD. HISTORICAL/TIME TRAVEL

It’s been seven long years since Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, but at     last here is the ninth entry in the enduringly popular “Outlander” series. Reunited 20 years after having been sundered by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall now live in Revolutionary War–era North Carolina with daughter Brianna and her family. The backcountry seems remote, but with their tenants; loyalties split, Jamie and Claire know they can’t avoid the war forever, and Brianna and husband Roger begin to wonder whether returning to the past to escape the dangers of the 20th century was the wisest plan. Meanwhile, Jamie’s son, William Ransom, must come to terms with his paternity. The sixth Starz season of Outlander is filming, and there’s talk of the seventh, so read ahead.

 

Brackston, Bradford, Steel & More Historical Fiction

Brackston, Paula. City of Time and Magic. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781250260697. $27.99. HISTORICAL

Bradford, Barbara Taylor. A Man of Honor. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 448p. ISBN 9781250187451. $29.99. CD. HISTORICAL

Jago, Lucy. A Net for Small Fishes. Flatiron: Macmillan. Nov. 2021. 352p. ISBN 9781250261953. $26.99. HISTORICAL

Steel, Danielle. Flying Angels. Delacorte. Nov. 2021. 288p. ISBN 9781984821553. $28.99. lrg. prnt. CD. HISTORICAL

Weiss, Elizabeth. The Sisters Sweet. Dial. Nov. 2021. 416p. ISBN 9781984801548. $27. Downloadable. HISTORICAL

To find and follow her next mission in Brackston’s City of Time and Magic, fourth in the time-traveling “Found Things” series, Xanthe must choose between the songs sung to her by a mourning brooch, a writing slope, and gem-encrusted hatpin; she also hunts for the missing Liam and seeks to block the Visionary Society from using the Spinners maliciously (50,000-copy first printing). In A Man of Honor, prequel to the 1979 megahit A Woman of Substance, Bradford tells the story of Blackie O’Neill, who travels from County Kerry to England as a young orphan and begins his rise in the world while meeting Substance’s Emma Harte, still a kitchen maid (75,000-copy first printing). Jago follows up The Northern Lights, winner of the National Biography Prize, with the 17th-century-set debut novel A Net for Small Fishes, drawing on real-life events: when Frances Howard, the miserable wife of the Earl of Essex, meets the widowed Anne Turner, they form a friendship that leads to something radical (35,000-copy first printing). Driven to act after Pearl Harbor, new Steel heroine Audrey Parker and friend Lizzie join the Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron, Flying Angels who regularly wing their way into enemy territory to rescue wounded soldiers from the battlefield. Harriet Szász once appeared in vaudeville with sister Josie as The Sisters Sweet, posing as conjoined twins at their parents’ behest, but when Josie betrays the scam and runs off to Hollywood, Harriet must decide what to do with her life. In-house love for Weiss’s debut.

 

Award-Worthy New Worlds in SF/Fantasy 

Anders, Charlie Jane. Even Greater Mistakes. Tor. Nov. 2021. 352p. ISBN 9781250766502. $27.99. SF/SHORT STORIES

Former editor in chief of io9.com, Nebula/Hugo award winner Anders shows off her short-form skills in a compilation of stories written over the last decade. The stories are both sharply imaginative—a woman who can see multiple futures is dating a man who sees the future foretold—and socially acute. A trans woman facing forced detransition through brain transplant learns that a childhood friend runs the program, and incompatible realities crisscross at a ghostly bookstore in a torn-apart America. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Corey, James. S.A. Leviathan Falls. (Expanse, Bk. 9). Orbit: Hachette. Nov. 2021. 608p. ISBN 9780316332910. $30. SPACE OPERA

No plot details yet, but Corey wraps up the ninth and final novel in his Hugo Award–winning “Expanse” series, which is seeing new life as a Prime Original undertaking. With a 125,000-copy first printing.

Deón, Natashia. The Perishing. Counterpoint. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781640093027. $26. FANTASY/HISTORICAL

In this follow-up to Deón’s New York Times best-booked debut, Grace, a Black woman named Lou awakens mostly naked and bereft of all memory in 1930s Los Angeles and goes on to become the first Black female journalist at the Los Angeles Times. Vivid flashbacks to different eras and an encounter with a downtown firefighter she’s never met but whose face she has been drawing for years lead her to think that she may be an Immortal, sent to this time and place with a purpose. With comparisons to Octavia Butler and N.K. Jemisin.

Glover, Nicole. The Undertakers. (Murder & Magic, Bk. 2). John Joseph Adams/Mariner: Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 448p. ISBN 9780358197102. pap. $15.99. CD. FANTASY/HISTORICAL

First seen in The Conductors, which launched Glover’s “Murder & Magic” series, Hetty Rhodes and her husband, Benjy, return in a second fantasy/mystery meetup set in post–Civil War Philadelphia. Both detectives and magic practitioners, Hetty and Benjy are investigating Raimond Duval’s death in one of the many fires suddenly sweeping the city, with evidence suggesting that the nefarious Fire Company is allowing homes in the Black community to burn down. Then Raimond’s son is found dead, and events start looking like murder. With a 25,000-copy first printing.

Liu, Ken. The Veiled Throne. (Dandelion Dynasty, Bk. 3). Gallery: Saga: S. & S. Nov. 2021. 1008p. ISBN 9781481424332. $29.99. CD. FANTASY/EPIC

Having surrendered her throne to her brother, Princess Théra, Empress Üna of Dara, has crossed the Wall of Storms with 10,000 troops and prepares to do battle with the Lyucu. She and her top associates are ready to try any means possible to prevail, but they may be ignoring the wisdom of the past, and in the end the commoners among them come up with ideas of their own. Third in the multi-award-winning Liu’s “Dandelion Dynasty” series; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Marske, Freya. A Marvellous Light. (Last Binding, Bk. 1). Tordotcom. Nov. 2021. 384p. ISBN 9781250788870. $27.99. FANTASY/HISTORICAL

In Edwardian England, Baronet Robin Blyth is trying to keep his life and estate in order when he learns that he has been named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society he never knew existed. Edwin Courcey, his crusty counterpart in magic’s realm, resists him mightily. But the disappearance of Robin’s predecessor compels them to investigate together, and soon they unearth a plot targeting magicians in the British Isles that has already cost a few lives. A debut novel from an Aurealis short-listed author, cohost of Be the Serpent, a Hugo Award–nominated podcast; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Roberts, Nora. The Becoming. (Dragon Heart Legacy, Bk. 2). St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 448p. ISBN 9781250272706. $28.99. CD. FANTASY

In the human realm, Breen Siobhan Kelly is a mild-mannered schoolteacher, but her true identity starts emerging in Talamh, the realm of magick to which she returns after The Awakening. She is being trained as a warrior by Keegan, leader of the Fey, who grows to admire her for more than her skills. But there’s a problem: Breen’s grandfather, the outcast god Odran, is plotting to bring Talamh crashing down. With a million-copy first printing and a one-day laydown on November 23.

Tchaikovsky, Adrian. Elder Race. Tordotcom. Nov. 2021. 176p. ISBN 9781250768728. pap. $14.99. SF

Lynesse may be the disregarded Fourth Daughter of the queen, but she knows that she must do something to save her people when a demon comes to haunt them. For help, she seeks out Elder Nyr, who has lived in a local tower for longer than anyone can remember. Despite what people think, he is no sorcerer, but he does know that whatever is threatening the land is not a demon. From Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Tchaikovsky.

 

From Mary Balogh to J.R. Ward: Pop Fiction 

Balogh, Mary. Someone Perfect: A Friend of the Westcotts Novel. Berkley. Nov. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9780593335291. $27. REGENCY

Castle, Jayne. Guild Boss. Berkley. Nov. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9780593336991. $27. PARANORMAL ROMANCE

Cousens, Sophie. Just Haven’t Met You Yet. Putnam. Nov. 2021. 384p. ISBN 9780593331521. pap. $16. Downloadable. ROMANCE

Evans, Richard Paul. The Christmas Promise. Gallery: S. & S. Nov. 2021. 224p. ISBN 9781982177423. $21.99. CD. HOLIDAYS

Graves, Tracey Garvis. Heard It in a Love Song. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9781250235688. $27.99. CD. WOMEN

Ward, J.R. The Wolf. Gallery: S. & S. Nov. 2021. 368p. ISBN 9781982179878. $28. CD. PARANORMAL ROMANCE

Wilson, Casey. A Dog’s Chance. Grand Central. Nov. 2021. 224p. ISBN 9781538737934. pap. $12.99. ANIMALS

In Balogh’s latest Westcott Regency, irascible Justin Wiley, Earl of Brandon, has the decency to take responsibility for half-sister Maria when her mother dies, inviting her friend Lady Estelle Lamarr to accompany Maria to Everleigh Park, where family secrets crack open and the earl finds himself attracted to Someone Perfect: Lady Estelle. In Guild Boss, New York Times best-selling author Castle again escorts us to the earth colony Harmony for another futuristic paranormal romance fling. In Cousens’s Just Haven’t Met You Yet, Laura picks up the wrong suitcase at the Channel Islands airport while on a business trip, then hunts for the owner with romantic notions—the suitcase included piano music, her favorite book, and a cool fisherman’s sweater—with the help of a cranky cabbie who has charms of his own. Evans returns with another Christmas Promise, featuring a love and faith thought lost restored by the true spirit of Christmas (200,000-copy first printing). In the New York Times best-selling Graves’s Heard It in a Love Song, newly divorced music teacher Layla recalls her golden days as lead singer of a bar band and falls into happy conversations with the newly separated dad of one of her students, though both are wary of new love (75,000-copy first printing). Next in Ward’s “Prison Camp” series, a Black Dagger Brotherhood spin-off set in an underground prison housing murderers and thieves, The Wolf opens with second-in-command Rio saved from death by a lupine creature with golden eyes (150,000-copy first printing). In canine celebrator Wilson A Dog’s Chance, Madison helps both her troubled 14-year-old daughter, Abbie, and 75-year-old Arthur by having Abbie help train Arthur’s energetic new golden retriever puppy (35,000-copy first printing).

 

NONFICTION

Books on a Hard Year

Boss, Pauline. The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic. Norton. Nov. 2021. 208p. ISBN 9781324016816. $21.95. PSYCHOLOGY

An expert in the areas of trauma therapy, grief, and family stress—in March alone, she was featured in the Atlantic (“We Have To Grieve Our Last Good Days”) and the New York Times (“‘Mom Is Really Different’: Nursing Homes Reopen to Joy and Grief”)—Boss here addresses the free-floating anxiety, upset, and anger we feel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. She calls it ambiguous loss, as we aren’t sure what’s missing even as we fret about our families, our jobs, and our futures, and she has advice for coping.

Engler, Elise. A Diary of the Plague Year: An Illustrated Chronicle of 2020. Metropolitan: Holt. Nov. 2021. 304p. ISBN 9781250824691. $32. ART

Five years ago, visual artist Engler decided that her task each morning would be to illustrate the first bit of news she heard on her radio. Then Donald Trump was elected president, and she never stopped creating images. From COVID-19 to George Floyd’s murder and the protests in response, to California wildfires and an arduous election, here is a visual diary of one very tough year. With a 40,000-copy first printing; Engler’s honors include multiple grants and two MacDowell residencies.

Finch, Charles. What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year. Knopf. Nov. 2021. 272p. ISBN 9780593319079. $28. Downloadable. MEMOIR

In March 2020, at the request of the Los Angeles Times, Finch began recording his daily thoughts on how his life and the lives of those around him were changing, addressing politics, protests, and pandemic but also those great escapes—Murakami’s novels, anyone, or the Beatles? As he is an author par excellence—we owe him thanks for his Charles Lenox mystery series, the excellent literary novel The Last Enchantments, and his award-winning book criticism—the chronicle that resulted should be immediately satisfying.

Greenhouse, Linda. Justice on the Brink: The Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months That Transformed the Supreme Court. Random. Nov. 2021. 272p. ISBN 9780593447932. $28. Downloadable. POLITICAL SCIENCE/JUDICIAL

As she’s been covering the Supreme Court for the New York Times for four decades, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Greenhouse is well situated to give us a real understanding of what happened to the court during a crucial 12-month period. As she points out, by the end of the 2019–20 term, the court had released some moderate decisions. But then came Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and Amy Coney Barrett’s ascension to the court, which tilted it rightward and, she asserts, will shape its rulings for years to come.

Ignatieff, Michael. On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times. Metropolitan: Holt. Nov. 2021. 288p. ISBN 9780805055214. $26.99. MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Human beings have always sought solace through religion, but, argues Booker Prize finalist Ignatieff, since the 1500s many began turning toward science, ideology, and the therapeutic. Here, to show where the less religiously persuaded might find light that illuminates the darkness, he considers writers, thinkers, artists, and musicians primarily from the Western canon, bringing in the Bible’s Psalms, for instance, but also turning to the likes of Anna Akhmatova, Albert Camus, and Primo Levi With a 60,000-copy first printing.

 

World History Perspectives

Lawler, Andrew. Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City. Doubleday. Nov. 2021. 464p. ISBN 9780385546850. $32.50. HISTORY

In the 1860s, when a French adventurer in Jerusalem dug up what he proclaimed to be the tomb of an Old Testament queen, the race was on among European countries to lay claim to the fabled city and dig up its past. Both Jews and Muslins reacted angrily to the possible desecration, and what lies beneath Jerusalem's streets remains contested to this day. Expanding on a 2019 National Geographic cover story, Lawler (The Secret Token) reveals Jerusalem’s underground byways and shows us how archaeology and politics powerfully interact in the Middle East.

Mazower, Mark. The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe. Penguin Pr. Nov. 2021. 560p. ISBN 9781591847335. $35. Downloadable. HISTORY

A Columbia University history professor specializing in Greece, the Balkans, and 20th-century Europe, Mazower presents a chronicle of the Greek War of Independence to coincide with its 200th anniversary. The war featured a ragged bunch of Greek patriots going up against the mighty Ottoman Empire with a little help from European and American sympathizers (think Lord Byron). To clarify what this revolution meant for Europe and the world, Mazower seeks to explode myths about the war while addressing the larger issues he pinpoints, e.g., Christianity vs. Islam, the emergence of the nation-state, and ethnic cleansing on both sides.

Ostler, Catherine. The Duchess Countess: The Woman Who Scandalized Eighteenth Century London. Atria. Nov. 2021. 384p. ISBN 9781982179731. $30. HISTORY

Named maid of honor to Augusta, Princess of Wales, in 1743, Elizabeth Chudleigh both shocked and titillated the public with her daring lifestyle, sporting diamonds and once appearing at a masquerade ball in a wafer-thin dress. Even a charge of bigamy couldn’t break her. Though she served as the model for William Thackery’s social-climbing Becky Sharp, Ostler aims for a more nuanced picture. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Playdon, Zoë. The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes. Scribner. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781982139469. 27. CD. HISTORY

Born in 1912 Scotland to a family that held a baronetcy, Ewan Forbes was assigned female at birth but with his mother’s support was treated with synthetic testosterone and raised as a boy. He lived quietly as a husband and doctor until 1965, when his older brother’s death left him in line for the baronetcy. The inheritance was contested, but in 1968 Scotland’s supreme civil court sided with Forbes. Unfortunately, the hearing had no influence on the state of trans rights; it was private, and the case remained unknown until 1996. Playdon, Emeritus Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of London and a former co-chair of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists, tells the full story. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Trethewey, Rachel. The Churchill Sisters: The Extraordinary Lives of Winston and Clementine’s Daughters. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781250272393. $29.99. HISTORY

Diana, Sarah, and Mary–they were the Churchill sisters, each with a distinctive relationship with her father and all with a front-row seat at key events in history. (A fourth sister, Marigold, died young.) British journalist Trethewey tells their story, focusing on intimate family relationships. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

 

World War II Perspectives

Clavin, Tom. Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781250151261. $29.99. CD. BIOGRAPHY

A 22-year-old farm boy from Washington State, Joe Moser flew off on his 44th combat mission over occupied France on August 13, 1944, and joined nearly 150 Allied airmen as prisoners in the brutal Buchenwald concentration camp after having to bail out of his burning plane. The men were barely surviving when orders came down from Hitler to execute them all. No. 1 New York Times best-selling author Clavin reveals what happened next; with a 150,000-copy first printing.

Hellinger, Magda & Maya Lee with David Brewster. The Nazis Knew My Name: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Courage in Auschwitz. Atria. Nov. 2021. 352p. ISBN 9781982181222. $27. MEMOIR

In March 1942, 25-year-old kindergarten teacher Hellinger arrived in Auschwitz on the second transport from Slovakia, among nearly 1,000 women and some of the camp’s first Jewish prisoners. She was one of the few to survive. Daughter Lee drew on her mother’s personal account, augmented by research, to provide this chronicle of Hellinger’s time in the camp. There, she was placed in charge of hundreds of women in the notorious Experimental Block 10 and sought to save lives while having to deal regularly with the SS guards and avoid their suspicions—and summary execution. With a 60,000-copy first printing.

Mackrell, Judith. The Correspondents: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II. Doubleday. Nov. 2021. 464p. ISBN 9780385547666. $30. Downloadable. BIOGRAPHY

Costa Biography Award short-listed Mackrell limns six women journalists who triumphed during World War II despite restrictions placed on them because of gender. They include Clare Hollingworth, the first war correspondent to report the outbreak of World War II; Martha Gellhorn, who beat out husband Ernest Hemingway with her big D-Day story; Vogue cover model Lee Miller, who became the magazine’s official war correspondent; society columnist–turned–combat reporter Virginia Cowles; Sigrid Schultz, who hid her Jewish identity as she reported on the Nazi regime; and Helen Kirkpatrick, the first woman to report from an Allied war zone with equal privileges to men.

McKean, David. Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 416p. ISBN 9781250206961. $29.99. HISTORY

Five key American diplomats in Europe witnessed the rise of Hitler firsthand: William Dodd in Berlin, Joseph Kennedy in London, William Bullitt in Paris, Breckinridge Long in Rome, and George Kennan in Moscow. They all clamored for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attention, yet as McKean points out, they generally underestimated Hitler’s power and failed to communicate to Roosevelt the looming threat that was the Third Reich. From the director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State; with a 60,000-copy first printing.

McManus, John C. Island Infernos: The US Army’s Pacific War Odyssey, 1944. Dutton Caliber. Nov. 2021. 576p. ISBN 9780451475060. $34. Downloadable. HISTORY

Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History, McManus’s Fire and Fortitude chronicled the U.S. Army’s sacrifices in the Pacific War over the two years from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the capture of Makin Island. Here he continues the story with the army proceeding to Saipan, Guam, and Okinawa, then finally regaining control of the Philippines in one of the war’s costliest battles.

 

U.S. History Perspectives

Applegate, Debby. Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age. Doubleday. Nov. 2021. 560p. ISBN 9780385534758. $32.50. Downloadable. BIOGRAPHY

To refresh our understanding of America during the Roaring Twenties, Pulitzer Prize winner Applegate (The Most Famous Man in America) chronicles the life of Pearl Adler. Polly, as she was known, was a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe who achieved remarkable success in America—as madam of a series of Manhattan brothels where the rich, the notorious, and the cultivated, from politicians to writers to gangsters, routinely gathered. Expect Gatsby-style promotion.

Brands, H.W. Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution. Doubleday. Nov. 2021. 496p. ISBN 9780385546515. $32.50. lrg. prnt. Downloadable. HISTORY

On the eve of the American Revolution, well-placed men like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin opted to fight the British while others, like Franklin’s son William, refused to do so and were soon called traitors for not having betrayed the crown. Says two-time Pulitzer finalist Brands, this clash between Patriots and Loyalists constituted our first civil war, with the loyalists batted aside as insignificant after the fighting. But they weren’t.

Graff, Garrett M. Watergate: A New History. Avid: S. & S. Nov. 2021. 448p. ISBN 9781982139162. $30. CD. HISTORY

Watergate reshaped the nation, and Graff—a veteran journalist, former editor of Politico, and New York Times best-selling author (The Only Plane in the Sky)—is here to tell its story in full. Starting not with the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC, but with the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, Graff sweeps through events that eventually ended Richard Nixon’s presidency. Along the way, he offers new information, never-told stories, and a wide cast of characters. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Gross, Robert A. The Transcendentalists and Their World. Farrar. Nov. 2021. 864p. ISBN 9780374279325. $40. HISTORY

Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts—these influential writers and thinkers were all associated with American Transcendentalism, and all lived in Concord, MA. Gross reconstructs the community and its spirit in a book that reveals not a peaceful, leafy-green village but a place of intellectual ferment in a rapidly changing America. Gross’s Bancroft Prize–winning The Minutemen and Their World, first published in 1976, will be reissued simultaneously with this book. With a 20,000-copy first printing.

Roberts, Andrew. The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III. Viking. Nov. 2021. 560p. ISBN 9781984879264. $40. Downloadable.

Vainglorious, incompetent, deranged—that is the view Americans have had of George III since the American Revolution. Roberts argues that this perception was shaped by the writings of revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, who had a vested interest in making the king look bad. Having worked his way through hundreds of thousands of pages of never-before-published correspondence, Roberts comes up with another view: George III was a gentle and likely enlightened monarch who battled mental illness as he was undermined by bad ministers and capable enemies. From leading Churchill biographer Roberts, winner of the Wolfson Prize.

Samet, Elizabeth D. Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness. Farrar. Nov. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9780374219925. $28. HISTORY

Americans tend to look at World War II as a “good war” that defined the country’s preeminence and presumably exceptional role in the world. Author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning Soldier's Heart, West Point professor Samet has a different take, drawing on examples from literature and film to show that in the immediate postwar period Americans were more ambivalent about the war—and war generally. Later, World War II mythology escalated to the resplendent role of the military hero in post-Vietnam period, which, says Samet, gets in the way of our dealing with more recent military conflicts. With a 20,000-copy first printing.

Stahr, Walter. Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln’s Vital Rival. S. & S. Nov. 2021. 832p. ISBN 9781501199233. $35. BIOGRAPHY

In 1860, Salmon P. Chase lost the Republican Party’s presidential nomination to Abraham Lincoln but proved to be a “vital rival.” In the 1840s, he had laid the groundwork for the party itself by forming and leading antislavery parties, and as Secretary of the Treasury he urged the president to pursue emancipation and the rights of Black Americans. From the author of the New York Times best-selling Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man and a two-time winner of the Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography.

Warren, James A. Year of The Hawk: America’s Descent into Vietnam, 1965. Scribner. Nov. 2021. 352p. ISBN 9781982122942. $28.

A former acquisitions editor at Columbia University Press and former visiting scholar in the American Studies Department at Brown University, Warren (God, War, and Providence) looks closely at the year America definitively entered the fighting in Vietnam. In 1965, the first U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam, an air campaign against North Vietnam was launched, and a major ground offensive targeted the Communist insurgency in the south. And then nothing worked as planned. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

 

Spotlight: Nikole Hannah-Jones’s “The 1619 Project” 

Hannah-Jones, Nikole. The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. One World: Random House. 400p. ISBN 9780593230572. $30. lrg. prnt. Downloadable. HISTORY

Launched by the New York Times editors in August 2019 as an ongoing series with MacArthur Fellow Hannah-Jones at the helm, the 1619 Project takes the arrival of the first enslaved people from Africa in August 1619 as its starting point and proceeds through four centuries to explore the contributions of Black Americans and the ways both slavery and resistance to oppression have definitively shaped America. The project brings us up to the present day with examinations of persistent anti-Black racism and continuing discussions of reparations and other unresolved issues. Contributors range from Jamelle Bouie and Jeneen Interlandi to Matthew Desmond and Bryan Stevenson, with fiction and poetry included along with nonfiction. The aim is to provide a new perspective on American history, and Hannah-Jones has already won a Pulitzer Prize for the project; this work expands on coverage that has already appeared. Note that a children’s edition will appear simultaneously (ISBN 9780593307359).

 

What Maps Can Tell Us

Cheshire, James & Oliver Uberti. Atlas of the Invisible: Maps and Graphics That Will Change How You See the World. Norton. Nov. 2021. 224p. ISBN 9780393651515. $40. SOCIAL SCIENCE/HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Cheshire (geographic information and cartography, University Coll. London) and Uberti, a former design editor for National Geographic, together constitute an award-winning geographer-designer team using a range of data sets to create useful and intriguingly different maps. The maps here show us everything from happiness levels worldwide to the hidden dangers of geopolitics to how the heating up of our planet impacts everything from hurricanes to the hajj. From the authors of the sleeper hit London: The Information Capital; full color throughout.

Marshall, Tim. The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World. Scribner. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781982178628. $27. POLITICAL SCIENCE/GEOPOLITCS

Diplomatic editor at Sky News and author of the Sunday Times best-selling Prisoners of Geography, Marshall wields ten maps of crucial regions worldwide to explore geopolitics today—especially with regard to the strategies of world powers—and the consequences for tomorrow. The regions he considers: Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Greece, Turkey, the Sahel, Ethiopia, Spain, and Space. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

 

Painting, Photography, Pottery & T-Shirts: Visual Arts

Ai Weiwei. 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir. Crown. Nov. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780553419467. $32. CD/downloadable. MEMOIR

Exiled with his family to China’s remote Little Siberia after his father was declared a rightist during the Cultural Revolution, Ai was eventually able to study art in the United States, where he befriended Allen Ginsberg and checked out Andy Warhol’s work. He returned home to become a world-renowned artist, the subject of two award-winning documentaries and a member of the team that designed the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing. He also became an ardent activist who has been jailed for his art and his beliefs. With two eight-page color inserts and line drawings throughout.

Danchev, Alexander. Magritte: A Life. Pantheon. Nov. 2021. 512p. ISBN 9780307908193. $45. Downloadable. BIOGRAPHY

A biographer of Braque and Cézanne, as well as a professor of international relations, Danchev argues that iconic iconoclast René Magritte was the single greatest influence on imagery in the modern world and a constant challenge to our understanding of reality itself. With 32 pages of color inserts and black-and-white images throughout; Danchev died just as he was completing this work, which was originally scheduled for November 2020.

Hunt, Tristram. The Radical Potter: The Life and Times of Josiah Wedgwood. Metropolitan: Holt. Nov. 2021. 352p. ISBN 9781250128348. $29.99. BIOGRAPHY

Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Hunt tells the story of Josiah Wedgwood—and there’s a lot more to it than his iconic pottery. Wedgwood was a farsighted businessman, crucial in his contributions to the Industrial Revolution and the scientific advances of the time. He was also a leading abolitionist. With a 40,000-copy first printing and three eight-page color inserts.

Marks, Ann. Vivian Maier Developed: The Untold Story of the Photographer Nanny. Atria. Nov. 2021. 368p. ISBN 9781982166724. $40. BIOGRAPHY

While working as a nanny in mid-20th-century Chicago, Vivian Maier ambled the streets and took some 140,000 photographs that were not discovered until after her death in 2009. She’s since become famous, but little was known of her life until former corporate executive Marks devoted her retirement to studying the photographer nanny. Here’s the story of someone who fled a family that had some corrosive secrets and who eventually captured extraordinary emotional resonance in her images. With a 40,000-copy first printing and nearly 400 color and black-and-white illustrations throughout.

Murakami, Haruki. Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love. Knopf. Nov. 2021. 192p. tr. from Japanese by Philip Gabriel. ISBN 9780593320426. $25. Downloadable. FASHION

Hugely popular Japanese author Murakami offers fans a peek into his closet, stacked high with his beloved T-shirts, from the one that inspired the short story “Tony Takitani” to those celebrating Springsteen on Broadway and the Beach Boys in Honolulu. With numerous brief, revealing essays; a decidedly different book.

Naifeh, Steven. Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved. Random. Nov. 2021. 448p. ISBN 9780593356678. $40. Downloadable. ART HISTORY

With his late husband, Gregory White Smith, Naifeh wrote the Pulitzer Prize–winning Jackson Pollock: An American Saga and four other New York Times best sellers, including Van Gogh: The Life. Here, Naifeh shows that while Van Gogh was a groundbreaker, he actually built on the work of artists he admired, ranging from Jean-François Millet to Claude Monet to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Color illustrations throughout juxtapose works by these artists with Van Gogh’s, representing 275 paintings altogether.

Richardson, John. A Life of Picasso: The Minotaur Years; 1933–1943. Knopf. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9780307266668. $35. BIOGRAPHY

Having issued three acclaimed volumes, Picasso expert Richardson completed this fourth volume on Picasso’s life shortly before his death in 2019. It covers a crucial decade in Picasso’s life, starting with the creation of his masterpiece, Guernica, first shown at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. He also deepened his involvement with the surrealists Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Paul Éluard, and André Breton on the magazine Minotaur and survived Nazi-occupied Paris and prohibitions against exhibiting because he was classed as a degenerate artist by the Nazis. With 213 illustrations and 24 pages of four-color art.

Sorel, Edward. Profusely Illustrated: A Memoir. Knopf. Nov. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9780525521068. $30. MEMOIR

Illustrator/caricaturist Sorel, whose work is familiar to readers of Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, and The New Yorker, tracks his life from the Depression-era Bronx and New York’s celebrated High School of Music & Art to his founding in the hot Sixties atelier Push Pin Studios with Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast and ascent to New York’s top art and literary circles. With 169 four-color illustrations throughout.

 

Studying Dostoevsky, Revisiting Highsmith & More Literature

Birmingham, Kevin. The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece. Penguin Pr. Nov. 2021. 432p. ISBN 9781594206306. $30. Downloadable. LITERATURE/HISTORY

Author of The Most Dangerous Book, a study of James Joyce’s Ulysses that won PEN New England and Truman Capote honors, Birmingham here reexamines the origins of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The novel was famously inspired by French murderer Pierre François Lacenaire, but Birmingham highlights how it was further shaped by experiences Dostoevsky had in Siberian exile, as he studied the criminals around him and rethought his political ideals. His aim: to write from the perspective of a murderer who truly desires to be good. To be read profitably with Andrew D. Kaufman’s The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky (Riverhead, Aug.).

Curtis, Cathy. A Splendid Intelligence: The Life of Elizabeth Hardwick. Norton. Nov. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9781324005520. $35. BIOGRAPHY

Past president of the Biographers International Organization, Curtis frequently writes about painters (e.g., A Generous Vision: The Creative Life of Elaine de Kooning). But here she turns her attention to star-of-the-literati Elizabeth Hardwick, cofounder of the New York Review of Books. An intimate work-and-life look.

Damrosch, David. Around the World in 80 Books: A Literary Journey. Penguin Pr. Nov. 2021. 384p. ISBN 9780593299883. $30. Downloadable. LITERARY CRITICISM

Chair of the comparative literature department at Harvard and founder of its Institute for World Literature, Damrosch is well positioned to take us on this ’round-the-world literary tour, inspired by Jules Verne’s hero Phileas Fogg and the travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Our travel companions include the likes of Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mo Yan, and Olga Tokarczuk, whose works, Damrosch explains, partake of two different worlds: that of personal experience and that of books.

Dauber, Jeremy. American Comics: A History. Norton. Nov. 2021. 496p. ISBN 9780393635607. $35. LITERATURE/HISTORY

Starting with Civil War–era cartoonist Thomas Nast and working his way through Krazy Kat, Dick Tracy, and the big midcentury superheroes to 1950s Comics Code, the underground comix movement, the emergence of Black Panther, and the ascendance of the graphic novel, Dauber offers an all-embracing study of American comics. Why have they gripped our imagination, and how have they influenced and been influenced by political and cultural cross-currents? When he’s not reading comics, Columbia University professor Dauber writes National Jewish Book Award finalist nonfiction. Try this with Douglas Wolk’s All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told (Penguin Pr. Oct.).

Davis, Lydia. Essays Two: On Proust, Translation, Foreign Languages, and the City of Arles. Farrar. Nov. 2021. 592p. ISBN 9780374148867. $35. LITERARY/ESSAYS

A master particularly of short-form fiction who was a National Book Award finalist for Varieties of Disturbance: Stories and winner of the Man Booker International Prize for her oeuvre, Davis is also an accomplished translator. Here she collects all her essays on translating Proust, Flaubert, and Michel Leiris; learning a world language through reading; and staying for an extended time in the Van Gogh–brightened city of Arles. With a 25,000-copy first printing.

Higgins. Charlotte (text) & Chris Ofili (illus.). Greek Myths: A New Retelling. Pantheon. Nov. 2021. 368p. ISBN 9780593316269. $26. Downloadable. MYTHOLOGY

Chief culture writer at the Guardian and winner of the Classical Association Prize, Higgins takes a fresh look at Greek myths, which have been retold throughout the millennia given their unerring understanding of the human condition. Higgins works from the perspective of women, from Athena and Helen to Circe and Penelope, as if they were weaving these stories together into one grand tapestry. Illustrator Ofili has exhibited at the Tate Britain and New York’s New Museum. Big in-house love.

Highsmith, Patricia. Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941–1995. Liveright: Norton. Nov. 2021. 992p. ed. by Anna von Planta. ISBN 9781324090991. $39.95. MEMOIR

Once considered a pulp writer, the reclusive Highsmith has emerged since her death in 1995 as a leading modernist with a distinctive view of American culture in the last half of the 20th century. This volume, condensed from more than 8,000 pages of diaries and notebooks found posthumously behind Highsmith’s linens and assiduously condensed by her longtime editor, should give readers greater insight into her life and work. Big New York Times buzz upon acquisition.

Jordan, Tina & Noor Qasim, eds. The New York Times Book Review: 125 Years of Literary History. Clarkson Potter: Crown. Nov. 2021. 368p. ISBN 9780593234617. $50. Downloadable. LITERARY CRITICISM

To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the New York Times Book Review, deputy editor Jordan joins forces with Qasim, a recent editing fellow at the review, to compile the best—and sometimes the funniest and strangest—coverage. Reviews, anecdotes, correspondence, photographs, first takes on lasting works, and essays from the likes of Langston Hughes, Eudora Welty, and Nora Ephron—it adds up to a lot of good reading. With 100 four-color photographs.

Powell, Padgett. Indigo: Arm Wrestling, Snake Saving, and Some Things In Between. Catapult. Nov. 2021. 272p. ISBN 9781646220052. pap. $16.95. LITERARY ESSAYS

A National Book Award finalist and James Tait Black Prize winner, Powell offers his first collection of nonfiction. Pieces written over the last three decades range from attending the World Armwrestling Federation Championships in Sweden to seeking out the rare indigo snake to growing up in the segregated, then newly integrated South. Writers from Flannery O’Connor to William Trevor also get their due, and let’s not forget Powell’s cherished pit bull.

Winterson, Jeanette. 12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next. Grove. Nov. 2021. NAp. ISBN 9780802159250. $27. LITERARY ESSAYS

The multi-award-winning, New York Times best-selling Winterson here offers a series of sharp-witted essays on how artificial intelligence might impact the way we live—no surprise to anyone who read her recent novel, the multi-best-booked Frankissstein. Will we make nonbiological life-forms in our image or revise our own? What happens to love and caring in a world of nonhuman teachers, sex workers, and companions? What about issues of gender, identity, and whether we are our bodies? Some deep thoughts.

 

Music, Film, TV: Performing Arts 

De Visé, Daniel. King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King. Grove. Oct. 2021. 496p. ISBN 9780802158055. $30. MUSIC

Horowitz, Joseph. Dvorak’s Prophecy: And the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music. Norton. Nov. 2021. 256p. ISBN 9780393881240. $30. MUSIC

Ivory, James. Solid Ivory: Memoirs. Farrar. Nov. 2021. 416p. ed. by Peter Cameron. ISBN 9780374601591. $30. FILM

McCartney, Paul. The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. Liveright: Norton. Nov. 2021. 960p. ed. by Paul Muldoon. ISBN 9781631492563. $100. 2 Vols. MUSIC

Penn, Kal. You Can’t Be Serious. Gallery: S. & S. Nov. 2021. 384p. ISBN 9781982171384. $28. CD. FILM/TV

Raekwon with Anthony Bozza. From Staircase to Stage: The Story of Raekwon and the Wu-Tang Clan. Gallery: S. & S. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781982168728. $28. MUSIC

Spitz, Bob. Led Zeppelin: The Biography. Penguin Pr. Nov. 2021. 688p. ISBN 9780399562426. $35. MUSIC

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist De Visé (Andy and Don) offers an extensively researched biography of B.B. King, the immortal King of the Blues. Former New York Times music critic Horowitz investigates the crucial issue why classical music in America has remained white despite Dvorák’s Prophecy that a "great and noble" school of American classical music would emerge from the Black music he had heard while visiting America. Edited by novelist Cameron, Solid Ivory ranges from fabled director Ivory's first meeting with work-life partner Ismail Merchant through his memories of Satyajit Ray, Federico Fellini, Vanessa Redgrave, George Cukor, Kenneth Clark, Bruce Chatwin, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala to his winning the Academy Award at 89 for Call Me by Your Name. Edited by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Muldoon, who benefited from dozens of interviews with McCartney over five years, The Lyrics presents the definitive texts of 154 McCartney songs with personal commentary; look for an international press conference on Facebook event upon publication. The grandson of Gandhian freedom fighters and immigrant parents, Penn ignored advice to do something practical and, as he chronicles in You Can’t Be Serious, became a leading actor; he also served as President Obama’s Liaison to Young Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and the Arts (125,000-copy first printing). Readers travel with influential rapper Raekwon the Chef as he ascends From Staircase to Stage, from performing on Staten Island stairs to cofounding the Wu-Tang Clan to making a platinum solo debut (75,000-copy first printing). Author of the New York Times best-selling The Beatles, Spitz now documents the ferociously successful Led Zeppelin.

 

The Universe, Earth & Health: STEM Titles 

Cham, Jorge & Daniel Whiteson. Frequently Asked Questions About the Universe. Riverhead. Nov. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9780593189313. $28. Downloadable. SCIENCE/PHYSICS

Fox, Porter. The Last Winter: The Scientists, Adventurers, Journeymen, and Mavericks Trying to Save the World. Little, Brown. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9780316460927. $28. CD/downloadable. EARTH SCIENCES

Gee, Henry. A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 208p. ISBN 9781250276650. $24.99. LIFE SCIENCES

Han, MeiLan K. Breathing Lessons: A Doctor’s Guide to Lung Health. Norton. Nov. 2021. 192p. ISBN 9780393866629. $25. HEALTH & FITNESS

Nakate, Vanessa. A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2021. 208p. ISBN 9780358654506. $22. MEMOIR/ENVIRONMENTALISTS

Podcast cohosts Cham, a scientist-turned-cartoonist (PHD Comics), and University of California, Irvine, professor Whiteson address Frequently Asked Questions About the Universe, from space and time to gravity, black holes, and the origins of everything. Winner of Lowell Thomas and Western Press Association honors, Fox blends memories of growing up on a remote Maine island and an explanation of how and why we are facing The Last Winter, with snow cover and the length of the snowy season shrinking precipitously in the last 50 years (35,000-copy first printing). Senior editor at Nature, Gee takes us back to Earth’s roiling early seas as the bubbles that became life began forming, that strides us through A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth (60,000-copy first printing). Professor of medicine in the University of Michigan’s Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Han gives us Breathing Lessons, explaining how the lungs work as she highlights their role as the body’s first line of defense. Uganda’s first Fridays for Future protestor and a leading climate justice crusader, Nakate blends proclamation and the personal in A Bigger Picture, arguing that while her community suffers disproportionately from climate change, activists from Africa and the global south are often not heard in the din of white voices. As one of five international delegates at the World Economic Forum, she was even cropped from an AP photo (40,000-copy first printing).

 

Politcs, Policy & Biography 

Andersen, Christopher. The Brothers: Inside the Private Worlds of William and Harry. Gallery: S. & S. Nov. 2021. 352p. ISBN 9781982159726. $27.99. CD. BIOGRAPHY/ROYALTY

Twenty years after Diana’s Boys, celeb biographer Andersen follows up on William and Harry at a time when tensions prevail between them, controversy stalks the royals, and Queen Elizabeth II nears the end of her reign. Andersen homes in on the queen’s influence, particularly regarding William; the impact of marriage and fatherhood on both brothers; and Harry’s departure from the royal family. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Dyson, Michael Eric. Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2021. 352p. ISBN 9781250135971. $28.99. CD. CULTURAL CRITICISM

Cultural critic/public intellectual Dyson, author of the New York Times best-selling Tears We Cannot Stop, demonstrates the enormous impact of Black culture and politics throughout America history by deploying the various meanings of the word entertain. Black people were once compelled to entertain white people in slavery and must continue to find ways to make the discussion of race entertaining today; from America’s earliest days, Black people have had to entertain the very idea of race. Dyson sums up issues he has considered throughout his career while providing fresh insight. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

Feinstein, John. Raise a Fist, Take a Knee: Race and the Illusion of Progress in Modern Sports. Little, Brown. Nov. 2021. 384p. ISBN 9780316540933. $30. Downloadable. SPORTS

Drawing on multiple interviews, veteran sportswriter Feinstein highlights such issues as a lack of diversity among coaching and managerial staff, the undervaluation of Black quarterbacks, and negative responses to players who "raise a fist, take a knee" before the game to demonstrate that professional sports in America are infused with—and in fact perpetuate—racial inequality. With 75,000-copy first printing.

Jones, Kimberly. How We Can Win: Race, History and Changing the Money Game That’s Rigged. Holt. Nov. 2021. 128p. ISBN 9781250805126. $22.99. BLACK STUDIES

After George Floyd’s murder, Jones, who hosts the Atlanta chapter of the Well-Read Black Girl book club, explained the social and economic injustices faced by Black people thus: “So if I played 400 rounds of monopoly with you and I had to play and give you every dime that I made, and then for 50 years, every time that I played, if you didn’t like what I did, you got to burn it like they did in Tulsa and like they did in Rosewood, how can you win? How can you win?” And she’s got answers. With a 150,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for May.

Klaas, Brian. Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us. Scribner. Nov. 2021. 336p. ISBN 9781982154097. $28. PSYCHOLOGY

Who gets power, and who misuses it? Are tyrants, embezzlers, and cops who kill born bad, or do they become bad owing to the system they’re in? To answer these questions and more regarding power, award-winning podcaster and Washington Post columnist Klaas, global politics at University College London, conducted more than 500 interviews with leaders, dictators, and rebels worldwide, even gliding down the slopes with a ski instructor who once ruled Iraq. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Kunz, Anita. Original Sisters: Portraits of Tenacity and Courage. Pantheon. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9780593316146. $30. BIOGRAPHY

Distinguished artist/illustrator Kunz, whose Another History of Art was just presented at LJ’s Spring 2021 Day of Dialog, here offers more than 150 color portraits of women throughout history who made a difference. They range from Hatshepsut and Joan of Arc to Rachel Carson and Misty Copeland to women previously little known or celebrated. Her inspiration: locked down in Toronto owing to COVID, she began researching women on the Internet. With a foreword from Roxane Gay.

Lehr, Dick. White Hot Hate: A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America’s Heartland. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2021. 400p. ISBN 9780358359906. $28. DOMESTIC TERRORISM

In spring 2016, three men belonging to an anti-government, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant extremist group called the Crusaders took umbrage at the growing Somali community in a Kansas farming town and decided to bomb a mosque—after the presidential election, so as not to hurt Donald Trump’s chances of winning. An FBI informant taped conversations with the militia over eight months, putting paid to the plot. True-crime author Lehr won an Edgar for Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI and a Devil’s Deal. With a 25,000-copy first printing.

Mak, Tim. Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA. Dutton. Nov. 2021. 368p. ISBN 9781524746452. $29. Downloadable. POLITICAL SCIENCE

National Public Radio’s Washington investigative correspondent, Mak spent four years digging through previously unpublicized documents and cultivating dozens of contacts within the National Rifle Association to show how a grassroots club focused on gun safety became a corrupt and powerful lobbyist organization blocking efforts to regulate guns in America. He also gives evidence that its power is beginning to slide.

Mukwege, Denis. The Power of Women: Learning from Resilience To Heal Our World. Oprah: Flatiron: Macmillan. Nov. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781250769190. $28.99. CD. HEALTH POLICY

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mukwege, a gynecological surgeon in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is famed worldwide for his support and treatment of women raped during armed conflict. (His work has taken him to South Korea, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as other countries in Africa.) Here he explains the need to better support survivors, shatter taboos regarding assault, understand why wartime sexual violence is often disregarded and how Western involvement can perpetuate it, and build a more positive masculinity. He also uses the voices of those he has worked with to persuade other survivors that they, too, will be able to move forward. With a 125,000-copy first printing.

Rock, Chris. Untitled. Celadon: Macmillan. Nov. 2021. 256p. ISBN 9781250618566. $27. CD. HUMOR/POLITICS

Multi-award-winning Black comedian/actor Rock uses his distinctive brand of humor to discuss race relations in America. No further details, but the 300,000-copy first printing speaks volumes.

Yang, Jeff & others. Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2021. 496p. ISBN 9780358508090. $28. POP CULTURE

Starting in the 1990s, the first generation of Asian Americans born since the Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965 liberalized immigration policies have reshaped America, not just as activists, politicians, and executives but in the pop culture realm as singers, rappers, dance crews, and social media pioneers. Cultural critic Yang, who started one of the first Asian American national magazines, A. Magazine, covers the 1990s, while Angry Asian Man blogger Phil Yu and Wong Fu Productions cofounder Philip Wang handle the 2000s and 2010s, respectively. Interactive graphics, original graphic essays from notable Asian American artists, nine fold-out images, eight Asian American “spaces,” and an Asian American U.S. atlas—all in full color. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

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The November 2021 Prepub Alert Index

Fiction

Mystery, History & the Police

Last Mysteries: Three Essential Titles

Hot-Shot Thrillers

From Akpan to Yun: Literary Fiction

Spotlight: Diana Gabaldon’s Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone

Brackston, Bradford, Steel & More Historical Fiction

Award-Worthy New Worlds in SF/Fantasy

From Mary Balogh to J.R. Ward: Pop Fiction

Nonfiction

Books on a Hard Year

World History Perspectives

World War II Perspectives

U.S. History Perspectives

Spotlight: The 1619 Project

What Maps Can Tell Us

Painting, Photography, Pottery & T-Shirts: Visual Arts

Studying Dostoevsky, Revisiting Highsmith & More Literature

Music, Film, TV: Performing Arts

The Universe, Earth & Health: STEM Titles

Politics, Policy & Biography

 

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The November 2021 Prepub Alert is also available as:

A downloadable spreadsheet of titles

A print-ready PDF of all Prepub Alert posts