Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Can’t Wait Wednesday: November 2020 Book Releases

 

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Can’t Wait Wednesday is hosted by Wishful Endings. I get to highlight the intriguing books that are coming out in November. Since it’s currently Nonfiction November, and bookworms everywhere are devouring as much nonfiction as possible, I have two hot-off-the-presses true stories for you.

 



πŸ¦ƒ November 2020 Book Releases πŸ“š


 



Snap Them Up For Nonfiction November

 




We Keep The Dead Close: A Murder At Harvard And A Half Century Of Silence by Becky Cooper

 

True Crime

November 10, 2020

 


1969: the height of counterculture and the year universities would seek to curb the unruly spectacle of student protest; the winter that Harvard University would begin the tumultuous process of merging with Radcliffe, its all-female sister school; and the year that Jane Britton, an ambitious 23-year-old graduate student in Harvard's Anthropology Department and daughter of Radcliffe Vice President J. Boyd Britton, would be found bludgeoned to death in her Cambridge, Massachusetts apartment.

Forty years later, Becky Cooper, a curious undergrad, will hear the first whispers of the story. In the first telling the body was nameless. The story was this: a Harvard student had had an affair with her professor, and the professor had murdered her in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology because she'd threatened to talk about the affair. Though the rumor proves false, the story that unfolds, one that Cooper will follow for ten years, is even more complex: a tale of gender inequality in academia, a "cowboy culture" among empowered male elites, the silencing effect of institutions, and our compulsion to rewrite the stories of female victims.

 

Why I’m excited: The early reviews have been phenomenal. The “dark academia” genre has been popular in fiction this year, and now it’s creeping into nonfiction as well. I guess people can’t get enough of murders on college campuses. I’m one of those people who can’t get enough. I never knew there was a murder mystery involving Harvard. I’m very interested to see the differences between the ghost story rumors and the truth.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

 

Memoir

November 17, 2020

 


Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

 

Why I’m excited: Judging by the already-massive waitlist at my library, everybody wants to read this book. I like political memoirs because they usually have fascinating behind-the-scenes information. I’m way more interested in the daily lives of politicians than in the accomplishments and problems that get reported in the news. I need some juicy details! I can read about the rest of the stuff in the newspapers. Hopefully this book has what I’m looking for.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 




Fiction

 




White Ivy by Susie Yang

 

Adult Literary Mystery

November 3, 2020

 


Ivy Lin is a thief and a liar—but you’d never know it by looking at her. Raised outside of Boston, she is taught how to pilfer items from yard sales and second-hand shops by her immigrant grandmother. Thieving allows Ivy to accumulate the trappings of a suburban teen—and, most importantly, to attract the attention of Gideon Speyer, the golden boy of a wealthy political family. But when Ivy’s mother discovers her trespasses, punishment is swift and Ivy is sent to China, where her dream instantly evaporates.

Years later, Ivy has grown into a poised yet restless young woman, haunted by her conflicting feelings about her upbringing and her family. Back in Boston, when she bumps into Sylvia Speyer, Gideon’s sister, a reconnection with Gideon seems not only inevitable—it feels like fate.

Slowly, Ivy sinks her claws into Gideon and the entire Speyer clan by attending fancy dinners and weekend getaways to the Cape. But just as Ivy is about to have everything she’s ever wanted, a ghost from her past resurfaces, threatening the nearly perfect life she’s worked so hard to build.

 

Why I’m excited: The early reviews have been positive. Readers are hyped for this book. It's already getting award nominations. It captured my attention because it’s being compared to The Talented Mr. Ripley, which is a novel I’ll never forget. I hope to see some complicated, sinister characters.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Decameron Project: 29 New Stories From The Pandemic by The New York Times (Editor)

 

Short Story Anthology

November 10, 2020

 


When reality is surreal, only fiction can make sense of it.

In 1353, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron: one hundred nested tales told by a group of young men and women passing the time at a villa outside Florence while waiting out the gruesome Black Death, a plague that killed more than 25 million people. Some of the stories are silly, some are bawdy, some are like fables.

In March of 2020, the editors of The New York Times Magazine created The Decameron Project, an anthology with a simple, time-spanning goal: to gather a collection of stories written as our current pandemic first swept the globe. How might new fiction from some of the finest writers working today help us memorialize and understand the unimaginable? And what could be learned about how this crisis will affect the art of fiction?

These twenty-nine new stories, from authors including Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, Edwidge Danticat, and David Mitchell vary widely in texture and tone. Their work will be remembered as a historical tribute to a time and place unlike any other in our lifetimes, and offer perspective and solace to the reader now and in a future where coronavirus is, hopefully, just a memory.

 

Why I’m excited: Well, this anthology is quite timely, isn’t it? Some of my favorite writers have stories in this book. I’m especially looking forward to the work by Margaret Atwood, Kamila Shamsie, and Karen Russell. Maybe it will motivate me to read the original Decameron. Probably not. That thing is massive.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those Who Prey by Jennifer Moffett

 

Young Adult Contemporary

November 10, 2020



College life isn’t what Emily expected.

She expected to spend freshman year strolling through the ivy-covered campus with new friends, finally feeling like she belonged. Instead, she walks the campus alone, still not having found her place or her people so far away from home.

But then the Kingdom finds her.

The Kingdom, an exclusive on-campus group, offers everything Emily expected of college and more: acceptance, friends, a potential boyfriend, and a chance to spend the summer in Italy on a mission trip. But the trip is not what she thought it would be. Emily and the others are stripped of their passports and money. They’re cut off from their families back home. The Kingdom’s practices become increasingly manipulative and dangerous.

And someone ends up dead.

 

Why I’m excited: The weird group-cult-thing and murders and trips to Italy, obviously. I’m also excited to see a young adult book set on a college campus. Teenagers are very interested in college. It has always seemed bizarre to me that there aren’t many college books aimed at teenage readers. I hope this starts a new trend. It’s an untapped market. This book is being compared to Sadie and The Girls, which sounds good to me. I enjoyed both of those novels.

 

Buy it on Amazon




 



WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT BY CARYS BRAY

 

Adult Literary Fiction

November 12, 2020

 


If you believe the world is going to end, how do you live? And what if, while preparing for disaster, you unwittingly precipitate it? While Emma Abram prepares for Christmas, her husband is stockpiling food and setting up a rabbit farm. Chris Abram is preparing for the worst; the imminent floods, and anything else he can imagine—power cuts, starvation, societal collapse. Emma longs to lower a rope and winch him from the pit of his worries. But Chris doesn't want to be rescued or even reassured; he wants to pull her in after him.

 

Why I’m excited: Carys Bray is one of those authors I’ve never read but I’m pretty sure I’ll like. I have a few of her books on my must-read-someday Pinterest board. The conflict between the husband and wife in this novel got my attention. I think it’d be hard to live with someone who’s obsessed with the world ending.

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CHILDREN OF RED PEAK BY CRAIG DILOUIE

 

Adult Horror

November 17, 2020

 


David Young, Deacon Price, and Beth Harris live with a dark secret. As children, they survived a religious group's horrific last days at the isolated mountain Red Peak. Years later, the trauma of what they experienced never feels far behind.

When a fellow survivor commits suicide, they finally reunite and share their stories. Long-repressed memories surface, defying understanding and belief. Why did their families go down such a dark road? What really happened on that final night?

The answers lie buried at Red Peak. But truth has a price, and escaping a second time may demand the ultimate sacrifice.

 

Why I’m excited: Honestly, I usually avoid horror stories based on cults because they tend to be poorly researched and sensationalized. I can’t suspend my disbelief enough to get into the story. But, I’m curious about this one because the characters are trying to sort out what happened in their past. That means they should find logical explanations for things, right? I’m crossing my fingers that there aren’t any nonsensical plot twists. This book has the potential to be awesome.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE WAY BACK BY GAVRIEL SAVIT

 

Young Adult Historical Fantasy

November 17, 2020

 


For the Jews of Eastern Europe, demons are everywhere: dancing on the rooftops in the darkness of midnight, congregating in the trees, harrowing the dead, even reaching out to try and steal away the living.

But the demons have a land of their own: a Far Country peopled with the souls of the transient dead, governed by demonic dukes, barons, and earls. When the Angel of Death comes strolling through the little shtetl of Tupik one night, two young people will be sent spinning off on a journey through the Far Country. There they will make pacts with ancient demons, declare war on Death himself, and maybe—just maybe—find a way to make it back alive.

 

Why I’m excited: I seem to have a thing about books where Death is a character. Maybe it goes back to my obsession with The Book Thief? I don’t know. Whenever Death comes to town, I want to know who bites the dust. This book is being compared to work by Philip Pullman and Neil Gaiman. I will be thrilled if it lives up to those comparisons.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

 

 

THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS BY CHLOE GONG

 

Young Adult Historical Fantasy

November 17, 2020

 


The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.

A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love . . . and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

 

Why I’m excited: I’m actually on the fence about this one. The setting and time period are super interesting to me, but I’m not sure about the gang thing. Or the Romeo & Juliet thing. Books about romance or gangs are rarely a hit with me. If you’ve read an advanced copy, let me know what you think.

 

Buy it on Amazon

Buy it on Book Depository

 

 

 

 

 

 




Which November book releases are you excited about?






13 comments:

  1. I always enjoy your monthly release posts. :-) I kept hearing about A Promised Land yesterday. It seems to be one many are looking forward to getting their hands on when it comes out. These Violent Delights is one I have my eye on. When the Lights Go Out is a new one to me--but I definitely would like to read it now that I know about it. I hope you get a chance to read all of these, AJ--and enjoy them!

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  2. Some great ones on here! The Decameron Project really intrigues me because we are having the students at my school do a "Quaran-Zine" where they share things they've either written during the pandemic or about it for sure. Thanks for sharing all of these!
    Lisa Loves Literature's Wednesday Post

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  3. Cool! I also have These Violent Delights on my list! Let's hope we both enjoy it!

    Here’s my WoW!

    Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog

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  4. I didn't realize Barack Obama had a book coming out, that should be a good one!

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  5. I love the cover of The Way Back. I bet people can't get reading the Obama book soon enough. Michelle's book was such a hit! I am hoping to squeeze These Violent Delights in somewhere. It has such a pretty cover too.

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  6. I have yet to dip my toe in the YA cult books. I don't know if it's because I vividly remember The Moonies, but I find it all super disturbing.

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  7. Yeah I have the White Ivy novel and Obama's memoir on my TBR list .... it's going to be huge! I think the memoir will be worth the wait. I have pre-ordered it from an indie bookstore.

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  8. Some of these are new to me like, We Keep the Dead Close, which sounds fabulous by the way. I see a few more that I know I would like to read such as These Violent Delights.

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  9. I'm really excited for Obama's book too. He's always so eloquent.

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  10. We Keep the Dead Close sounds wonderful. I will add it to my tbr. πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘

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  11. I definitely had to get in line for We Keep the Dead Close; I am 24 on six copies! I also am in line for Obama's book - the Kindle version and print version, to see which comes first. I got in fairly early so I am 68th on 17 physical books, and 18th on 1 copy for Kindle.

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