Looking Forward: The Books of 2011

If you've visited my blog before, you probably know that I love making lists. I'm a sucker for a list of books. I love lists of books almost as much as I love books themselves. Yes, it's a neurosis, I know. But a fairly harmless one.

At the beginning of every year, I usually make a list of upcoming books that look interesting to me. Originally, I kept the lists in my reading journals, and in recent years I've started turning them into simple computer databases. Much easier to keep track of, and searchable! But this year I thought, why not just keep my list on my blog? Even more convenient.

So here's my list of new books to look out for in 2011. These are not, by any means, all the books that will be published in the US in 2011. They're just the ones I think sound interesting. Of course, I'll only be reading a tiny fraction of the titles on this list. But in a perfect world, a world in which I could read a book or two per day, this is what I'd be reading this year.

• January
  
  Cecelia Ahern. The Book of Tomorrow (novel)
  Jennie Bentley. Mortar and Murder (cozy mystery)
  Elizabeth Buchan. Separate Beds (novel)
  Barbara D'Amato. Other Eyes (mystery)
  Sharon Fiffer. Backstage Stuff (a Jane Wheel mystery)
  Lee Goldberg. Mr. Monk on the Road (mystery)
  Detlef Hilmer, et al. Postcards of the Wiener Werkstatte (art history)
  Alice Hoffman. The Red Garden (novel)
  Jennifer Homans. Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet (cultural history)
  Erin Kelly. The Poison Tree (novel)
  Michael Koryta. Cypress House (historical novel)
  Don Lattin. The Harvard Psychedelic Club (cultural history)
  Jane McLoughlin. Shadow of a Doubt (mystery)
  Brad Meltzer. The Inner Circle (thriller)
  Fern Michaels. Home Free (novel)
  J.J. Murphy. Murder Your Darlings (historical novel)
  Amy Myers. Murder on the Road (mystery)
  Joyce Carol Oates. Give Me Your Heart: Tales of Mystery and Suspense (short fiction)
  Leonard Pitt. Paris: A Journey Through Time (history, travel; reissue)
  James Rubart. Book of Days (novel)
  Kenneth Slawenski. J.D. Salinger: A Life (biography)
  Andrew Taylor. The Anatomy of Ghosts (historical mystery; read in January)
  Charles Todd. A Lonely Death (historical novel)
  Susan Vreeland. Clara and Mr. Tiffany (historical novel)
  Jill Paton Walsh. The Attenbury Emeralds (historical mystery)
  Jo Walton. Among Others (novel)
  
  
• February
  
  Mark Alpert. The Omega Theory (thriller)
  Nancy Atherton. Aunt Dimity and the Family Tree (cozy mystery)
  M.C. Beaton. Death of a Chimney Sweep (a Hamish Macbeth mystery)
  Rene Belletto. Coda: A Novel (novel)
  Ben Bova. Leviathans of Jupiter (sci-fi)
  Kevin Brockmeier. The Illumination (novel)
  Joyce Dennys. Henrietta Sees It Through (epistolary novel)
  Theodor Fontane. Irretrievable (novel)
  Julia P. Gelardi. From Splendor to Revolution: The Romanov Women, 1847-1928 (history)
  Martha Grimes. Fadeaway Girl (mystery)
  Keigo Higashino. The Devotion of Suspect X (mystery)
  Rebecca Hunt. Mr. Chartwell (historical novel)
  Chris Knopf. Bad Bird (mystery)
  Amanda Lee (aka: Gayle Trent). Stitch Me Deadly (mystery)
  Sandor Marai. Portraits of a Marriage (novel)
  Craig McDonald. One True Sentence (historical mystery)
  Kate Mosse. The Winter Ghosts (historical novel)
  Joyce Carol Oates. A Widow's Story (memoir)
  Michael Palmer. A Heartbeat Away (thriller)
  Darwin Porter, Roy Moseley. Damn You, Scarlett O'Hara: The Private Lives of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier (biography)
  Douglas Preston / Lincoln Child. Gideon's Sword (thriller)
  Jonathan Rabb. The Second Son (historical novel)
  David Rosenfelt. On Borrowed Time (thriller)
  Elena Mauli Shapiro. 13, rue Therese (historical novel)
  Mel Starr. A Trail of Ink (historical mystery)
  Barbara Steffen, ed. Vienna 1900 (art history)
  Elizabeth Stuckey-French. The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady (novel)
  Alexander Theroux. The Strange Case of Edward Gorey (biography; reissue)
  Dan Vyleta. The Quiet Twin (historical novel)
  
  
• March
  
  Catherine Aird. Past Tense: A Sloan and Crosby Mystery (mystery)
  Kate Atkinson. Started Early, Took My Dog (detective novel)
  Jean M. Auel. The Land of Painted Caves (an Earth's Children novel)
  David Bezmozgis. The Free World (novel)
  C.J. Box. Cold Wind (a Joe Pickett novel)
  Alan Bradley. A Red Herring Without Mustard (historical novel)
  Chelsea Cain. The Night Season (mystery)
  C.S. Challinor. Murder on the Moor (a Rex Graves mystery)
  Jonathan Coe. The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim (novel)
  Charles Cumming. The Trinity Six (novel)
  Mary Daheim. The Alpine Vengeance (an Emma Lord mystery)
  E.L. Doctorow. All the Time in the World: New and Selected Stories (short fiction)
  Carola Dunn. Anthem for Doomed Youth: A Daisy Dalrymple Mystery (historical mystery)
  Paul Elwork. The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead (novel)
  Linda Fairstein. Silent Mercy (an Alex Cooper mystery)
  Joshua Foer. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (non-fiction; science)
  E.M. Forster. The Journals and Diaries of E.M. Forster (autobiography, travel)
  Lisa Gardner. Love You More (a D.D. Warren mystery)
  John Harding. Florence and Giles (historical novel)
  Mat Johnson. Pym (historical novel)
  Jonathan Kellerman. Mystery (an Alex Delaware mystery)
  Linda Francis Lee. Emily and Einstein (novel)
  Gail Levin. Lee Krasner: A Biography (biography)
  Elizabeth Loupas. The Second Duchess (historical mystery)
  Paula McLain. The Paris Wife (historical novel)
  Rae Meadows. Mothers and Daughters (novel)
  Ian Morson. Falconer and the Death of Kings (a William Falconer mystery)
  John Julius Norwich. Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy (history)
  Tea Obreht. The Tiger's Wife (novel)
  Rohan O'Grady. Let's Kill Uncle (novel)
  S.J. Parris. Prophecy (historical novel)
  Georges Perec. The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise (novel)
  Thomas Pletzinger. Funeral for a Dog (novel)
  Michael Robertson. The Brothers of Baker Street (mystery)
  Luis M. Rocha. The Pope's Assassin (thriller)
  Anne Roiphe. Art and Madness: A Memoir of Lust Without Reason (memoir)
  Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle (cozy mystery)
  Simon Tolkien. The King of Diamonds (historical mystery)
  Laura Wilson. An Empty Death (historical mystery)
  
  
• April
  
  Chris Adrian. The Great Night (novel)
  David Albahari. Leeches (novel)
  Ella Barcelo. The Goldsmith's Secret (historical novel)
  Louis Bayard. The School of Night (historical novel)
  William Boyd. Nat Tate: An American Artist: 1928-1960 (fictional biography)
  Rita Mae Brown. Hiss of Death (Mrs Murphy mystery #19)
  Cassandra Clark. The Law of Angels (historical novel)
  Stuart Clark. The Sky's Dark Labyrinth (historical novel)
  Anna Dean. A Gentleman of Fortune. Or, the Suspicions of Miss Dido Kent (historical novel)
  P.C. Doherty. Nightshade (historical novel)
  Jessica Fletcher, Donald Bain. Murder, She Wrote: Skating on Thin Ice (mystery)
  Mary Gordon. The Love of My Youth (novel)
  James Hamiliton. Arthur Rackham: A Life with Illustration (art history; biography)
  Donna Leon. Drawing Conclusions (a Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery)
  David Lodge. A Man of Parts (historical novel)
  Debbie Macomber. A Turn in the Road (a Blossom Street novel)
  Wendy McClure. The Wilder Life (nonfiction)
  Chris Paling. Nimrod's Shadow (historical novel)
  Anne Perry. Treason at Lisson Grove (a Charlotte & Thomas Pitt mystery)
  Arthur Phillips. The Tragedy of Arthur (novel)
  Rebecca Rasmussen. The Bird Sisters (historical novel)
  Alexandra Styron. Reading My Father (memoir)
  Frank Tallis. Vienna Twilight (historical novel)
  Carol Wallace. Leaving Van Gogh (historical novel)
  Katherine Webb. The Unseen (historical novel)
  Meg Wolitzer. The Uncoupling (novel)
  
  
• May
  
  Jeffrey Archer. Only Time Will Tell (historical novel)
  John Boyne. Noah Barleywater Runs Away (for young readers)
  Martin Davies. The Year After (historical novel)
  Essie Fox. The Somnambulist (historical novel)
  Tessa Hadley. The London Train (novel)
  Jane Harris. Gillespie and I (historical novel)
  Ursula Hegi. Children and Fire (historical novel)
  Dany LaFerriere. I Am a Japanese Writer (novel)
  Jo Nesbo. The Snowman (a Harry Hole mystery)
  Stefanie Pintoff. Secret of the White Rose (historical mystery)
  John Sandford. Buried Prey (a Lucas Davenport mystery)
  Lisa See. Dreams of Joy (novel)
  Lynn Sheene. The Last Time I Saw Paris (historical novel)
  Enrique Vila-Matas. Never Any End to Paris (novel)
  Katie Ward. Girl Reading (historical novel)
  Betty White. If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) (memoirs)
  
  
• June
  
  S.J. Bolton. Now You See Me (mystery)
  Kate Christensen. The Astral (novel)
  Clive Cussler, Grant Blackwood. The Kingdom (a Fargo adventure novel)
  Elizabeth Aston Edmondson. Stone and Shadows (historical novel)
  David Kaiser. How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival (nonfiction)
  Felix J. Palma. The Map of Time (novel)
  Ann Patchett. State of Wonder (novel)
  James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge. Now You See Her (thriller)
  Marcus Sakey. The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes (mystery novel)
  Earl Swift. The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways (nonfiction)
  S.J. Watson. Before I Go to Sleep (novel)
  
  
• July
  
  Catherine Coulter. Split Second (FBI series) (thriller)
  Barbara Delinsky. Escape (suspense novel)
  Barbara Erskine. Whispers in the Sand (historical novel)
  Cristina Garcia. Dreams of Significant Girls (YA novel)
  Tess Gerritsen. The Silent Girl (suspense novel)
  John Hart. Iron House (thriller)
  Gregory Murphy. Incognito (historical novel)
  Janet Reitman. Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion (nonfiction)
  Anne Rivers Siddons. Burnt Mountain (novel)
  Elizabeth Speller. The Return of Captain John Emmett (historical novel)
  Chevy Stevens. Never Knowing (suspense novel)
  Alexander Theroux. Estonia: A Ramble Through the Periphery (nonfiction)
  Nicola Upson. Two for Sorrow (historical novel)
  John Verdon. Shut Your Eyes Tight (thriller)
  Richard Zimler. The Warsaw Anagrams (historical novel)
  
  
• August
  
  C.J. Box. Back of Beyond (thriller)
  Robert Olen Butler. A Small Hotel (novel)
  Edmund deWaal. The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance (nonfiction)
  Tess Gerritsen. Call After Midnight (suspense novel)
  Lev Grossman. The Magician King (novel)
  Michael Kazin. American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation (nonfiction)
  Christobel Kent. A Murder in Tuscany (mystery novel)
  Louise Penny. A Trick of the Light (mystery novel; Chief Inspector Gamash series)
  Marisha Pessl. Night Film (novel)
  Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Cold Vengeance (thriller; Pendergast series #11)
  Helen Schulman. This Beautiful Life (novel)
  
  
• September
  
  Haruki Murakami. 1Q84 (novel)
  
  
• October
  
  Anne Enright. The Forgotten Waltz (novel)
  
  
• November
  
  Joan Didion. Blue Nights (memoir)
  James Garner. The Garner Files (memoir)
  Michel Houellebecq. The Map and the Territory (novel)
  Diane Keaton. Then Again (memoir)
  
  
• December

Sources:

About.com
Amazon.com
Book Browse
Bookmarks Magazine
Conversational Reading
The Cozy Mystery List
GoodReads
Historical Novel Society
Library Journal
Macmillan.com (U.S.)
The Millions.com: 2011 Book Preview
Murder, Mystery and Mayhem: A Resource for Readers
New York Times Book Reviews
The Penguin Publishing Group Online Catalogs
Shelf Awareness

"Waiting On" Wednesday: One True Sentence

Jill at Breaking the Spine, hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event spotlighting those new and future releases that we're looking forward to getting our hands on.

And this week, the book I'm looking forward to is:

One True Sentence
Written by Craig McDonald
Minotaur Books
Release date: February 15, 2011

Description (from GoodReads):

A Movable Feast meets The Dante Club, this crime novel by Edgar-nominated Craig McDonald begins when a literary magazine editor’s body lands in the Seine.

Paris, 1924. Hector Lassiter, crime novelist and best friend of Ernest Hemingway, is passing the Pont Neuf when he sees a body fall into the Seine, the first in a string of brutal murders that befall literary magazine editors on both banks of the City of Lights. Eager to solve the mystery, Gertrude Stein gathers the most prominent crime and mystery writers in the city, including Hector and the dark and intriguing mystery novelist Brinke Devlin. Soon, Hector and Brinke are tangled not only under the sheets but in a web of murders, each more grisly than the next, and Hemingway, Hector, and Brinke have to scramble to find the killer before they become the next victims.

Paris in the 1920s and a few grisly murders! And Gertrude Stein running the show? How could I pass that up?

Teaser Tuesdays: Codex

Since I'm still reading the same books I was reading last Tuesday, for today's teaser I'm using lines from a book I read several years ago. I've been looking back through some of my reading journals and this is one passage that jumped out at me. It's a little longer than two lines, but it seems so relevant to the current debate about paper vs. electronic books, I thought I'd include the whole thing (sorry - I'll make up for it next week). In Lev Grossman's novel Codex from 2004, Edward Wozny, a young banker, is asked to help one of his firm's most important clients organize a library of rare books. In this bit, Edward has just encountered the library for the first time:

He was treating these books like they were holy relics...there was something magnetic about them, something that compelled respect, even the silly ones, like the Enlightenment treatise about how lightning was caused by bees. They were information, data, but not in the form he was used to dealing with it. They were non-digital, nonelectrical chunks of memory, not stamped out of silicon but laboriously crafted out of wood pulp and ink, leather and glue. Somebody had cared enough to write these things; somebody else had cared enough to buy them, possibly even read them, at the very least keep them safe for 150 years, sometimes longer, when they could have vanished at the touch of a spark. That made them worth something, didn't it, just by itself? [Chapter 4, p. 57]

Well, I'd certainly go along with those sentiments. But then, I have the soul of a librarian.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in a comment here.

Reading Challenge Addict - That's Me!

Cheryl @ CMash Loves To Read, and Gina @ Hott Books are co-hosting the Reading Challenge Addict Challenge 2011, and they must have read my mind because I was thinking that I really, really need something like this. Yes, I am a reading challenge addict, and I am not ashamed to admit it. But I do need something to help me keep up to date on my progress during the year, and this should be just the ticket.

You can read all about the challenge here, and sign up here. The four levels of participation are:

1. Easy as Pie: 1-5 Challenges (Entered & Completed)
2. On the Roof: 6-10 Challenges (Entered & Completed)
3. In Flight: 11-15 Challenges (Entered & Completed)
4. Out of This World: 16+ Challenges (Entered & Completed)

And I'm definitely in the "Out of This World" category. I'm currently signed up for nineteen challenges: fifteen new ones just for 2011; three ongoing, perpetual or long-term challenges; and one personal challenge (also ongoing). They're all listed on my challenge blog, where I can keep track of my reading and reviews. Not making any firm promises at this early date, but I think I'll probably try to do a regular update post about the challenge, maybe once a month or so.

Now if I could just find a challenge that would keep me from signing up for more challenges, I'd be on the road to recovery!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I did actually get some reading done last week, although I didn't finish any books. I spent way too much time checking out all the new reading challenges and playing with my challenge blog. But this week things should be getting back to normal. (Normal?) Anyway, here's how I'm doing at the moment:

• Finished last week:
  Nada.
  
  
• Reviews posted:
  Juliet, by Anne Fortier
  The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan
  The Weird Sisters, by Eleanor Brown
  
  
  
• Reading this week:
  The Anatomy of Ghosts, by Andrew Taylor. Same thing I was reading last week, but I should be able to finish it up tonight or tomorrow. Review should be up later this week.
  
  Back When We Were Grownups, by Anne Tyler. Set this one aside to finish up the Andrew Taylor book. I'll be getting back to it now.
  
  
• Next up:
  Haven't settled on anything yet, but A Widow's Story by Joyce Carol Oates, The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham, and Los Alamos by Joseph Kanon are all in the queue.
  
  
  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

Reading Report: The Weird Sisters

Written by Eleanor Brown
Amy Einhorn Books/G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2011; 336 pages

(The review refers to an uncorrected proof of the novel.)

Description from the publisher:

The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there....But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from - one another, their small hometown, and themselves - might offer more than they ever expected.

Eleanor Brown's new novel, The Weird Sisters, is well written and tells an interesting story, and I think a lot of readers will enjoy it. I very much wanted to love it, but it just wasn't my cuppa I guess. The description was so attractive; but I really had to give myself a stern talking-to to keep reading beyond the first couple of chapters.

First of all, I think Brown should be given high marks for creating a family of readers. The Andreas sisters (Rosalind, Bianca and Cordelia - "Rose," "Bean," and "Cordy") and their parents are literate and bookish people, who love reading. They hang out in bookstores and libraries - they think a library card solves nearly all problems. They don't watch TV. They take books along to read in waiting rooms and queues. They read during good times and bad. As a bookworm, I found that wonderfully refreshing.

And I thought the story of the mother's illness and the family's reaction to it was very credible and moving. So true to life, in fact, that it was hard to read at times. The girls' mother was an interesting character, and I think I'd have enjoyed the book a little more if she'd been more of a presence.

But I found it very difficult to identify with or sympathize with any of the sisters. Now that wouldn't necessarily be a problem - I've enjoyed many books in which the characters aren't to my liking. But I think the fact that I found the girls so off-putting was the main reason I didn't enjoy this book as much as I should have.

There were other reasons. One thing that bothered me was that the sisters' personalities and group dynamic were so pat - Rose as the older sister was, of course, the brainy one and the mother hen who tried to control the lives of everyone around her; Bean, the middle child, was the one bent on getting out of the nest and succeeding at a high-powered career in the big city; and Cordy, the baby and everybody's pet, was the over-indulged, irresponsible free-spirit. The girls' Shakespeare-quoting father was another irritation - I would have divorced (or strangled) him long before I'd had time to have three children with him.

And the whole idea of a group (or plural) narrator bothered me a bit, too. The novel is written in first person plural, narrated from the collective perspective of the three sisters. That was intriguing at first, but I found it more and more disorienting as the narrative became more involved. After a while, it felt a little like communicating with the Borg.

Maybe it's just that I'm not a sibling, or that I'm from the wrong generation. Or maybe it's because I've read several other books recently that feature grown-up sisters living (or returning to live) with their parents. I don't know. Early in the novel, Brown has the sisters explain that when they call themselves "weird," they're thinking of the original "wyrd" and the way in which Shakespeare used it - "supernatural strangeness" or "fated." But the three young women in The Weird Sisters didn't seem particularly weird or wyrd to me - just a little annoying.

Note: This review refers to an uncorrected proof of the novel provided free of charge by the publisher, through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. No other compensation was offered or provided, and no one attempted to influence my opinion of the book.

Reading Report: The Thirty-Nine Steps

Written by John Buchan
First published 1915, by William Blackwood & Sons

Description from GoodReads:

Richard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his life in London. But then a murder is committed in his flat, just days after a chance encounter with an American who had told him about an assassination plot which could have dire international consequences. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland where he will need all his courage and ingenuity to stay one step ahead of his pursuers.

That's a very abbreviated synopsis of the story. But rather than try to describe the plot in more detail, I'll just suggest you take a look at the very nicely done Wikipedia article on the novel (here). It even has a little rundown of all the various film and radio versions that have been done over the years (most of them very different from the original book).

The Thirty-Nine Steps has been on my must-read list for decades now, and I have the 2010 Decades Reading Challenge (and the free e-book offer from Amazon) to thank for finally moving me beyond the "someday" promise. Overall, I enjoyed it very much - even though the "ripping yarn" type of adventure novel isn't usually something I take to. Buchan was a talented writer and he keeps the action moving right along at a pleasant pace. He maintains a good balance of dialogue and descriptive passages, and includes touches of humor here and there. All in all, this was a good, fast read and an entertaining, if somewhat far-fetched tale.