According to the calendar, September is still technically summer, but in the publishing industry, it is most definitely part of the fall season, and for bookworms, that can only mean one thing: blockbuster books are on their way! Here are the top five books publishing this month that we look forward to seeing at the library:
A Column of Fire, by Ken Follett (September 12): The long-awaited third book in Follett’s Kingsbridge saga – which started with Pillars of the Earth in 1989(!) – makes it debut this September and returns its readers to the medieval city of Kingsbridge, where political plots and treachery in the Elizabethan court are the backdrop to a doomed love affair. Catch up with the first two books of the series, Pillars of the Earth, set in the 12th century, and World Without End, set in the 14th century.
Perfect if you love: Complex historical dramas, such as those written by Bernard Cornwell and Philippa Gregory.
Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng (September 12): Ohio native Ng made herself a household name with her debut novel and runaway bestseller, Everything I Never Told You. She returns this fall with another riveting psychological portrait of a Cleveland suburb that is perfect on the surface, but whose cracks are revealed when a mother and daughter duo move to town and refuse to play by the town’s unspoken rules.
Perfect if you love: Novels that successfully blend character-driven drama with suspense. Try Fractured, by Catherine McKenzie (also set in Ohio), or Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty.
The Vietnam War: An Intimate History, by Geoffrey Ward (September 5): Ward collaborates with renowned documentary filmmaker Ken Burns in the companion piece to Burns’s upcoming PBS documentary on the Vietnam War. This sweeping volume includes multiple perspectives to explore everything from the history of the war, to significant and iconic battles, to the experiences of individual soldiers.
Perfect if you love: getting caught up in the past through Ken Burns’s inimitable storytelling.
What Happened, by Hillary Rodham Clinton (September 12): Former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton discusses her career leading up to the 2016 campaign and election, through a series of essays inspired by the quotes she has admired throughout her life.
Perfect if you love: reading, discussing, and dissecting modern American politics. Try recent books by newsworthy politicians such as Elizabeth Warren, Benjamin Sasse, and Jeff Flake.
Don’t Let Go, by Harlan Coben (September 26): Coben is a New York Times-bestselling author many, many times over, as well as an Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Award-winner. So it may not come as a surprise that his latest novel, Don’t Let Go, is a suspenseful thrill ride that includes nothing less than murder, the reappearance of a presumed missing person, and a decades-old conspiracy theory that may have uncovered a deadly truth.
Perfect if you love: authors who know how to reel you in and keep you hooked, like Don Winslow, Steve Hamilton, and Linwood Barclay.
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