Hi Bookworms, happy Labor Day weekend. I hope it’s fun and relaxing where you are. We are having three days of rain here. Bahhh, I had hoped to get yard work done before our trip this week to Mexico City for my nephew’s wedding (woohoo).
Here’s a shot from the end of the road.
I’ll be bringing Mexican Gothic in the travel bag … the 2020 novel by Silva Moreno-Garcia. I’m hoping it might add to the atmosphere.
Now September is upon us. Can you believe summer is about over? Yikes, it’s definitely cooler in the mornings here, but fall should be nice, and this month — my birthday month — is usually one of the prettiest of the year. I hope my tennis and golf playing will still be possible into mid-October.
I’ll be recapping what I finished on my Summer List next time. I just finished Belle Burden’s memoir Strangers about the collapse of her marriage, which was a buddy read with Tina at Turn the Page. I’ll review it next time.
Until then there’s much to discuss about what’s coming out this month. So many notable authors have new novels releasing including: Marlon James, Kate Atkinson, Robert Harris, John Green, Ariel Lawhon, R.F. Kuang, Emily St. John Mandel, Patrick deWitt, Jodi Picoult, Min Jin Lee, Hernan Diaz, and John Boyne. There’s also new mysteries by Ann Cleeves and Richard Osman and popular reads by Deesha Philyaw, Elin Hilderbrand, Amanda Peters, and Chloe Benjamin among others. I’m looking at these and a few others highlighted below.
First is Emma Cline’s novel Switzy (due out Sept. 8) about a retired man with dementia who’s on his final journey to Zurich to accept his fate. On the way he plans to see his daughter in London and an estranged boyhood friend in France. But what is evident is his mind seems to be unraveling.
This novel sounds moving and sad, but I’m not totally sure it’s advisable for me to read considering past losses … though Emma Cline is quite a young talent and I’ve read and liked her other two books. Switzy has been longlisted for the Booker Prize and we’ll have to see if it makes onto the shortlist when that’s announced on Sept. 22.
I’m also curious about Philippe Collin’s translated debut novel The Barman at the Ritz (out Sept. 1), which has been a big bestseller in France, about a bartender in Paris during the Nazi Occupation who is trying to hide a secret about himself while also helping the Resistance. Apparently the story draws on the real life of Frank Meier who served Nazis at the Ritz Hotel during WWII.
Kirkus calls it a “compelling story of entrapment and survival,” and Shelf Awareness says it’s a “sensitive portrait of a man forced to make impossible choices.” I have read several WWII novels set in Occupied France, but this one sounds like I shouldn’t miss it.
Next is Tananarive Due’s novel Mazywood (due out Sept. 22), which the publisher says is a literary thriller that follows the grandson of a famous Black actress who returns to his grandmother’s cabin retreat in the California mountains only to encounter a legacy of rage and secrets that has haunted his family for generations. The novel explores their family’s history while the grandson tries to piece together the true story of his grandmother who brushed shoulders with the stars of Old Hollywood.
I meant to read the author’s prior novel The Reformatory, which received much praise and now this book is doing the same. Both books are lengthy and apparently have a touch of the horror genre about them. She seems like an author who can spin an enticing yarn. She also teaches at UCLA.
Lastly I’m looking at Ayad Akhtar’s new novel The Radiance (out Sept. 29) about a writer who undergoes a startling transformation after being involved in a hit-and-run accident. Later he reaches out to a friend who teaches at the local college and then finds himself being pulled into a scandal there that threatens to destroy them both.
The novel — like Akhtar’s debut Homeland Elegies — is autofiction, which is genre I’m not usually a big fan of … whereby the author plays a main part in his or her own novel. Still the book has received an assortment of high praise so I’m going to check it out. Is it as profound and unforgettable as some are saying?
In what to watch this month — there’s Season 6 of the spy series Slow Horses with Gary Oldman as the grumpy chief spymaster starting on Sept. 16 on AppleTV, which is said to be bringing back some former characters, so stay tuned for that.
As well as there’s a new comedy-drama series Youth (starting Sept. 20 on HBO) starring Sharon Horgan as a 50-year-old divorcee literary agent who juggles dating life while taking care of her parents and adult son. Horgan, an Irish actress and the show’s creator, is funny in these types of roles and many liked her in the 2015 series Catastrophe and the more-recent series Bad Sisters, which is a fun spoof that features the five (bad) Garvey sisters who just might have covered up a crime.
I’m also eager to see the miniseries Trespasses (on PBS starting Sept. 20) about Cushla, a Catholic schoolteacher who falls in love — dangerously– with Michael, an older, married Protestant barrister in 1975 Northern Ireland. Cushia lives with her mother a widow and alcoholic (played by the great Gillian Anderson). It’s based on the 2022 novel by Louise Kennedy, which I reviewed here and was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Check it out if you get a chance.
Lastly in music this month, there’s new albums by Beck, Miley Cyrus, Neil Young, Susanna Hoffs, and Leon Bridges among others. I’ll pick Leon Bridges new studio album Happiness Anytime (out Sept. 25), which is his fifth. Here’s the sounds of the smooth and delectable single Talk It Over. Enjoy.
That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases are you looking forward to? Happy September.
