This is my “I keep meaning to get to it List.” Everything on this list has been sitting in my TBR pile for no fewer than 3 months. I want to read them all, but life (in the form of blurbing coming-soon books, researching and writing my own books, and reading books to my daughter) keeps getting in the way! I’m preaching to the choir, I know.
Books and travel are twin passions for me, and I prepare for literary journeys the way I prepare for literal ones: by making a list of things not to miss. Sometimes, though, it’s the unexpected discoveries along the way—a jewel-like fresco in an obscure crypt, a museum of quirky objects, a neighborhood café—that are equally memorable in retrospect. Same with books: some loom large across the literary landscape, while others await a serendipitous discovery. So while hoping to chance upon some hidden gems, these are the books I am most eager to read right now.
Welcome to today's guest author Janet McNally (Girls in the Moon and The Looking Glass) who is highlighting recently or soon to be released books. If you're an author, and would like to curate a future Can't Wait to Read, contact susanna@spinemagazine.co. Readers, we encourage you to visit your local library or bookstore and take a look at these new titles.
Can’t Wait to Read invites a guest author to choose a few books they’re excited to crack open. Thanks to Carolyn Murnick, author of The Hot One, for this week’s picks.
Not sure if you heard the news, but 50 years back astronauts set foot on the moon. The historic landing is all over the everything, and moon-related, Apollo-11-centric books abound. I love a theme, and I love seeing all the spacey titles arranged together in bookstore windows and on end-aisle displays. But also, these books are nonfiction and I crave fiction, so I've created my own themed display below; six recent fiction titles to send me (and you!) racing into space.
Sturdy and beautiful, hardcovers arrive during a book's loudest buzz, filling bookstore windows and library shelves as their authors embark upon book tours. Later, later, paperback versions of the same stories head out into the world, less heralded but, dare I say it, easier to love.
A paperback invites reading while eating Doritos, reading while taking a bath, reading while riding the bus or the subway or train. Shove that little lovely into your pocketbook, your laptop case, your overnight bag. Paperbacks are the perfect books for every time, and especially the summertime. Here are six coming out in the next few months — four originally published in hardcover plus two paperback originals — that I can't wait to read.
I’m somewhat contrarian when selecting books. I try fairly hard to ignore any and all industry buzz. If there’s a flood of opinion that something should be beloved, I’m instantly predisposed to find flaws. When I’m eagerly anticipating a read, it’s often because I think that author does interesting things, or that it’s on a subject I’m itching to dive more deeply into, or that it might be the sort of book I wish I’d written myself. These upcoming books tick those boxes.
Welcome to today's guest author, E.F. Sweetman, who is focusing her list on thrilling summer reads of several stripes. If you're a writer, and would like to curate a future Can't Wait to Read, contact susanna@spinemagazine.co. We encourage you to visit your local library or bookstore and take a look at these new titles.
Welcome to today's guest author, Jon Roemer. If you're a writer, and would like to curate a future Can't Wait to Read, contact susanna@spinemagazine.co. We encourage you to visit your local library or bookstore and take a look at these new titles.
Summer! Sea and sand, tall glasses of cold wheat beer with slices of lemon … but really I'm just looking forward to reading, same as I am come fall, winter, and spring. Some really excellent reads of all stripes came out in May (looking at you, Wordslut), but I've chosen books I'm most likely to toss in my bag before a week away.
To me, summer used to be about escapism. I discovered my love of reading as a young man by spending the afternoon thunderstorms digging into huge paperback adventures, things like Clive Cussler’s Raise the Titanic, or science fiction about planet-killing comets. As I got older, I managed enough good fortune to learn that these kinds of books were written by actual, verifiable human beings, a prospect I hadn’t really considered as a pre-teen. And once I fell in love with an author, I learned that I wanted to read all of what they’d done. I’ve heard theorists refer to this as reading vertically, but I didn’t need a name for it; whether it was John Irving in high school or Harry Crews and Don DeLillo in college, or everything from Defoe to Lydia Davis to Alice Munro in graduate school, I wanted to know exactly when a favorite author’s new book was coming out. In the 90s, I took writing classes at night and a part-time job at the Borders books closest to my house, mostly for the employee discount and the chance to sneak away with an advance copy of the latest fiction. That’s how I discovered Rick Moody, Lorrie Moore, Frederick Barthelme, and a few others. To me, the Tuesday of publication day always has a certain excitement. So here are a few that I definitely would have stolen from the Borders stockroom, if Borders still existed.
Today's Can't Wait to Read is double wide, 12 books that came out last week or are coming out this week.
This list is in alpha order by author. As with any book we feature in Spine, we encourage you to head to your local library or bookstore to grab a copy.
If you are an author, agent, or publicist and want your work/the work of one of your authors considered for inclusion, be sure to get in touch with Spine at susanna@spinemagazine.co.
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Can't Wait to Read!, where we celebrate titles coming out this week. Today's picks were chosen by Spine Authors Editor Susanna Baird. This list is in no particular order and, as with any book we feature in Spine, we encourage you to head to your local library or bookstore to grab a copy.
