Can’t Wait to Read!
This week, Can't Wait to Read! welcomes Spine Contributing Writer Megan DeMint, who's rounded up six books she's excited about. If you're a writer, and would like to curate a list, contact susanna@spinemagazine.co.
Make It Scream, Make It Burn: Essays by Leslie Jamison
Little, Brown and Company. September 24, 2019. If you haven’t become a fan of Leslie Jamison already through The Recovering and The Empathy Exams, you have a new chance with her upcoming collection of essays about obsession and longing. Her knack for identifying singular oddities and writing them into a larger web of ideas continues in her new collection, as she focuses on subjects like a lonely whale, a museum about breakups, and reincarnated children.
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Graywolf Press. November 5, 2019. This book is being heralded as a “radically inventive” memoir by writer Carmen Maria Machado, who is well-known for her short-story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Using horror themes alongside the house as a metaphor, Machado shares the story of her experience in an abusive relationship.
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
McClelland & Stewart. September 10, 2019. Atwood has promised readers answers in her forthcoming book, The Testaments. Sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, we finally follow up with the story and characters in Gilead fifteen years later. I, for one, am eager to see how the narrative takes shape alongside the plot developments of the television adaptation.
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
One World. September 24, 2019. This book is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ debut work of fiction about a boy born into slavery and separated from his mother. After he almost drowns in a river, he discovers a power he never knew he had. It leads him to a series of new trials as he escapes, fights against the institution of slavery, and tries to reconnect with his family.
Whose Story is This?: Old Conflicts, New Chapters by Rebecca Solnit
Haymarket Books. September 3, 2019. Who doesn’t love a good Rebecca Solnit essay collection? In her upcoming work, she navigates power and its dynamics through the lens of stories and who tells them. Addressing questions about who shapes our narratives, Solnit highlights changing dynamics and the importance of centering women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Find Me by André Aciman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux. October 29, 2019. It’s been over a decade since Call Me By Your Name was published, and now there is finally a sequel! Admittedly, many of us came to read the book after watching the recent movie, but it is with eagerness that many of us will revisit the love story of Elio and Oliver.
Megan DeMint is a writer and editor with a love for nonfiction: memoirs, collections of essays, books by journalists, and whatever else she can get her hands on. She writes articles about authors and their writing processes at Spine Magazine and works as a Communication Specialist at Cornell University. Even more of her work can be found at www.megandemint.com.