Earlier this week, I shared some of the titles I discovered as part of Harper Collins pre-BEA Summer/Fall Book Preview. In an attempt to not overwhelm you/keep the post short, today I’ll be sharing the remaining titles.   They are broken down by imprint (which may not mean anything to some of you) and I’ve listed a short summary taken from my notes, as well as the publication date. Though many of these titles don’t publish for a few months, hopefully this post will help you plan your upcoming book club picks!

Harper Perennial

Not Just Jane: Rediscovering Seven Amazing Women Writers Who Transformed British Literature  by Shelley DeWees (October 25): 

We’re all familiar with Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, but they weren’t the only ladies writing outstanding literature at that time. This is a non-fiction portrayal of seven women (Charlotte Turner Smith, Helen Maria Williams, Mary Robinson, Catherine Crowe, Sara Coleridge, Dinah Mulock Craik, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon) from British literary history.

 

 

The Waiting Room by Leah Kaminsky (November 1): 

Dina is the daughter of two survivors of a concentration camp durig World War II. Though she now has a family of her own, she struggles to get out from under her parents’ painful past. The current political conflict between between Palestine and Israel has reached its peak, constantly reminding Dina of the travesty and devastation her parents faced, history threatening to repeat itself. Told in alternating time periods, the reader will be constantly reminding of the frailty of human life.

 

 

Harper Paperbacks

Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan (October 25): 

Margot Lewis is an Classics and English literature teacher at an exclusive school in Cambridge. In her spare time, she writes and advice column for the local paper called “Dear Amy.”. Margot is the first to admit that perhaps she isn’t the best person to be offering advice, her own marriage a failure.

When a student of Margot’s goes missing, the police believe she was kidnapped. Shortly therafter, Margot receives a letter through her column, supposedly written by a girl kidnapped twenty years ago, never found. Margot instantly becomes an active part of the investigation and, unwillingly, a target herself.

After Anna by Alex Lake (August 2): 

A five year old girl is abducted, taken from outside her school, leaving no trace.  The police investigation has reached a stand-still, her parents don’t know what to believe. Then, a week later, she returns.  One would believe it’s a miracle until it is discovered that she has no memory of where she has been. And thus, the nightmare begins.

Dey Street Books

The World According to Star Wars by Cass R. Sunstein (May 31st):

There’s something about Star Wars that awakens the child within us.  All it takes is a few scores from the soundtrack and our excitement is piqued.  Sunstein reflects on the magic of Star Wars and it’s unanticipated success.  If ever there was a book for me, this one is it!

 

 

 

The Fortress by Danielle Trussoni (September 20): 

When writer Danielle Trussoni was 27 years old, she fell head-over-heels in love with a novelist from Bulgaria. Their shared interests intensify an already whirlwind romance.  Eight years later, their marriage struggling, they move to a medieval village in southern France.  It is here that Trussoni discovers herself, the isolation granting her knowledge about life and love that she might not otherwise have learned. Though the relationship is never patched up, what Trussoni learns is worth of weight of a lifetime, giving her the push to try again.

William Morrow

The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan (September 6):

Seventeen-year-old Zoe Maisey is a musical prodigy.  Three years ago, she was involved in an incident that left three of her classmates dead. Having paid her time, she’s ready to get back to her life.  Her mother, Marie, would prefer to let what happened stay in the past, refusing to tell her new husband about what transpired.

It’s the night of one of Zoe’s recitals. Marie has been planning it for months. What she didn’t plan on, however, is dying.  Told over the span of twenty-four hours from three different narratives, this tells the story the destructiveness of secrets.

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan (September 20): 

Nina Redmond loves her job as a librarian in a busy city. She has a knack for finding the perfect book for each of her patrons. Until, suddenly, her job is no more.

Refusing to give up, determined to make a new life for herself, she moves to a quiet village miles away from the hectic city. There, she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile, traveling from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing lives through books with each stop.  It is here that she finally feels she is at home, finally able to write her own happily ever after ending!

Inheriting Edith by Zoe Fishman (November 1):

Maggie Sheets is a struggling single mother. She’s a housecleaner, an occupation that isn’t exactly lucrative. When her former employer, a famous author, takes her life, Maggie learns she’s been gifted a beautiful home in Sag Harbor.  There’s one catch: she’s also inherited her employer’s eighty-two year old mother, Edith.

Edith has always been a strong and independent woman. A recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis has her worried about her future, now overwhelmed by her daughter’s death.  She’s less than thrilled with the news that Maggie and her toddler have made an abrupt entry into her life.  It isn’t until she’s physically incapable of caring for herself that let’s Maggie into her life, the two woman healing together.

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race  by Margot Lee Shetterly (September 6):

The space race was a monumental and history altering part of our nation’s past. We’re all familiar with John Glenn and Neil Armstrong…but they didn’t make the journey to space alone.  A group of bright, talented African-American women were the force and planning behind these space expeditions. Known as “colored computers,” these women helped write the equations that would allow these missions to take place, long before the creation of computers.  Using slide rules, adding machines, and pencil and paper, they were invisible to the nation…until now.

Using oral histories from five of these woman ( Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and Gloria Champine), this once secret group of talented woman is now brought to the forefront of our nation’s history.

Whew! I’m beat! Talk about a lot of outstanding books. Do any of these titles in particular stand out to you?