Fresh Lit!
Rosalind Reisner
www.areadersplace.net
roz@thereisners.net
LibraryLinkNJ Webinar
December 1, 2015
Books we’ll talk about
today—literary fiction
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Recent and forthcoming
Well-reviewed & publicized
First novels
New novels by favorite authors
Titles for reading groups
Trends…
• A good year for literary fiction!
• Go Set a Watchman overwhelmed the
summer market! Lots of strong opinions…
• Domestic fiction/family secrets still going
strong
Trends…
• Novelists and publishers continue to find
fiction based on historical and literary
characters marketable
• Multiple narrators and points of view
• Multiple chronologies—”split screen”
Readers who like family
and domestic drama
(psychological insight,
good character development,
contemporary settings)
The Girl Who Slept With God
by Val Brelinski
Aug., 2015; Penguin
First novel
Did You Ever Have a Family
by Bill Clegg
Sept., 2015; Gallery/Scout
First novel; 2 memoirs
The Mistake I Made
by Paula Daly
Sept., 2015; Grove/Atlantic
Previous: Keep Your
Friends Close
The Turner House
by Angela Flournoy
April, 2015; Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt
First novel
Louise Meets Bear
by Lisa Gornick
June., 2015; FS&G
Previous: Tinderbox
Best Boy
by Eli Gottlieb
Aug., 2015; Liveright/Norton
Previous: Now You See Him,
Face Thief, others
Multicultural novels
A Sister to Honor
by Lucy Ferriss
Jan., 2015; Penguin
Previous: The Lost
Daughter, Leaving the
Neighborhood
The Golden Son
by Shilpa Somaya Gowdi
Jan., 2016; HarperCollins
Previous: The Secret
Daughter
When the Moon is Low
by Nadia Hashimi
July., 2015; Morrow
Previous: The Pearl That
Broke its Shell
Re Jane
by Patricia Park
May, 2015; Penguin
First novel
Edgy, suspenseful novels;
literary mysteries;
political novels
The Lake House
by Kate Morton
Oct., 2015; Atria
Previous: The Secret
Keeper, The Distant
Hours
The Improbability of Love
by Hannah Rothschild
Nov., 2015;
Knopf/Doubleday
First novel
The Secret Wisdom of the
Earth by Christopher Scotton
Jan., 2015; Grand Central
First novel
All That Followed
by Gabriel Urza
Aug., 2015; Henry Holt
First novel
Medicine Walk
by Richard Wagamese
May, 2015; Milkweed
Previous: Ragged
Company
Heavy Hitters in literary
fiction
ambitious in scope and style
usually reviewed in the literary
press
A God in Ruins
by Kate Atkinson
May, 2015; Little, Brown
Previous: Life After Life;
Jackson Brodie mysteries,
Beyond the Scenes at the
Museum, others
The Story of the Lost Child
by Elena Ferrante
Sept., 2015; Europa
Previous: My Brilliant
Friend, Those Who Leave
and Those Who Stay,
Story of a New Name,
others
Purity
by Jonathan Franzen
Sept., 2015; Farrar, Straus
& Giroux
Previous: The Corrections,
Freedom
City on Fire
by Garth Risk Hallberg
Oct., 2015; Knopf
First novel
The Gap of Time
by Jeanette Winterson
Oct., 2015; Crown/Hogarth
Previous: Oranges are Not
the Only Fruit
HISTORICAL FICTION
The Japanese Lover
by Isabel Allende
Nov., 2015; Atria
Previous: House of the
Spirits, Daughter of Fortune,
others
We That Are Left
by Clare Clark
Oct., 2015; Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt
Previous: The Great Stink,
Savage Lands
Crooked Heart
by Lissa Evans
July, 2015; Harper/Collins
First novel
No. 4 Imperial Lane
by Jonathan Weisberg
August., 2015;
Twelve/Grand Central
First novel
Historical Fiction
Real Characters/Literary
characters
Saint Mazie
by Jami Attenberg
June., 2015; Grand Central
Previous: The Middlesteins,
others
The Hours Count
by Jillian Cantor
Oct., 2015; Penguin
Previous: Margot
Circling the Sun
by Paula McLain
July, 2015; Ballantine
Previous: The Paris Wife
The Muralist
by B.A. Shapiro
Nov., 2015; Algonquin Books
Previous: The Art Forger
All the Stars in Heaven
by Adriana Trigiani
Oct., 2015; HarperCollins
Previous: Supreme Macaroni
Company, Big Stone Gap,
others
Coming in 2016
Chevalier, Tracy. At the Edge of the Orchard. Viking. Mar. 2016.
previous: Girl With a Pearl Earring, The Last Runaway, others
DeLillo, Don. Zero K. Scribner. May, 2016.
previous: Underworld, White Noise, Libra, others
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. Before We Visit the Goddess. S&S. April,
2016.
previous: Mistress of Spices, Oleander Girl, others.
Grissom, Kathleen. Glory over Everything: Beyond the Kitchen House.
S&S. April, 2016.
previous: The Kitchen House
Faulks, Sebastian. Where my heart used to beat. Henry Holt. Jan., 2016.
previous: Birdsong, Charlotte Gray, others
Hadley, Tessa. The Past. Harper. Jan., 2016.
previous: The London Train, Clever Girl, others
Martel, Yann. The High Mountains of Portugal. Spiegel & Grau. Feb. 2016.
previous: The Life of Pi
Mitchard, Jacquelyn. Two if by Sea. S&S. Marcy, 2016.
previous: The Deep End of the Ocean
O’Nan, Stewart. City of Secrets. Viking. April, 2016.
previous: West of Sunset, City of Secrets, others
Quindlen, Anna. Miller’s Valley (2016)
previous: Still Life with Breadcrumbs; Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake,
others
Strout, Elizabeth. My Name is Lucy Barton (2016)
previous: Olive Kittredge, The Burgess Boys, Amy and Elizabeth
Some hints for keeping up…
• First line of defense (beyond the usual reviews):
Early Word www.earlyword.com
Library Journal Newsletters
www.libraryjournal.com/newsletters
• Book Expo and AAP “Sneak Peek”
– Review copies from publishers
– Speed dating with publishers (BEA)
– Webinars
Some hints for keeping up…
• End of year “best” lists: New York Times,
Amazon, Washington Post, Kirkus, LJ, PW…
• Edelweiss and NetGalley
•
http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/
•
https://www.netgalley.com/
• Shelf Awareness
– http://www.shelf-awareness.com/
Some hints for keeping up…
• Reading Group Choices, National Reading
Group Month/Great Group Reads
– www.readinggroupchoices.com
– http://www.nationalreadinggroupmonth.org/
• LitHub http://lithub.com/
• First Look Book Club (Random House)
– http://www.librarywebservices.com/firstlook/
Some hints for keeping up…
• Small/independent publishers to watch: Europa,
Graywolf, Coffee House, Tin House, Milkweed,
Sourcebooks, Other Press, Akashic
• Imprints from the big publishers: Algonquin,
Twelve (Hachette), Riverhead, Hogarth, Ecco