Fall Book Previews

I was asked to do a segment for the local TV/Radio station at my school, and I was so excited to a list of new and upcoming releases for the fall.  After shooting the segment with one of my students, I thought, who better to share this list with than all my friends in the blogosphere*?  Mark your calendars for these new reads!

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The approach of fall indicates a time of change – a new semester has started, the leaves are turning, and the weather is getting colder.  If you are looking for something to ease the transition, check out one of these new releases.

Bloggers have been raving about Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl since its publication late this summer.  On the surface, Nick and Amy Dunne’s marriage looks perfect, but that façade is shattered when Amy goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary.  Nick swears he is innocent, but are things really as they seem?  Told through alternating perspectives, Gone Girl will make an excellent, suspenseful companion on a cool fall evening.

If you prefer contemporary issues to suspense, check out Ellen Hopkins.  Hopkins will debut her newest young adult and adult novels this fall.  The young adult novel, Tilt, was released on September 11.  Tilt is a companion novel to Hopkins’ first adult novel, Triangles.  Where Triangles chronicled the lives of three women in various stages of their marriage, Tilt presents the perspective of those women’s teenage children.  Hopkins is well-known for tackling tough issues like eating disorders, teen pregnancy, and homosexuality.  This book will be a gritty, realistic portrait of teen life today.  Due out later this fall, on November 13, is Hopkins’ second adult novel, Collateral.  Collateral focuses on military families and the struggles they face in a time of national insecurity.  Both of Hopkins’ novels are presented in verse, giving her writing an artistic flair.  Don’t let their hefty size fool you.  Hopkins’ novels are always quick, compelling reads.

If you see reading as more of an escape into a world of mythology and action, look no further than young adult author Rick Riordan.  Riordan is famous for his Percy Jackson series about the travels and trials of a young demigod, born to Greek god Poseidon.  The third book in his Heroes of Olympus series entitled The Mark of Athena is due to drop October 2nd of this year.  In this series, Riordan teams Greek and Roman demigods on a quest to discover and close the Doors of Death.  Will the Prophecy of the Seven be fulfilled or will the seven demigods chosen for the assignment fail?

Last but not least, mark your calendars on September 27 for the release of J. K. Rowling’s much anticipated first novel since the close of the Harry Potter series.  The Casual Vacancy is adult political fiction, accomplishing Rowling’s desire to leave the fantastical world of Harry Potter behind her.  Set in the town of Pagford, a tiny English hamlet, the death of a prominent politician turns the town into a warzone as the council scrambles to hold an election to fill the parish seat.  Despite the new genre, knowing Rowling, readers are promised a complex, satisfactory storytelling experience.

Check out your local library this fall for these new books, and happy reading!

*Is this word spelled correctly?  Is blogosphere a technical term?