It's about this time each year when I frantically add a few last books to my summer reading pile and begin to look forward to the Fall releases. As a result, my wishlist swells and my pocketbook wains. Below are the books at the top of my wishlist.
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn: Everyone has been talking about this book and I've yet to hear anything negative. I need this book and I need it now. Synopsis: Just how well can you
ever know the person you love? This is the question that Nick Dunne must
ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his
wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's
friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from
him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows
strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the
persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did really did happen to
Nick's beautiful wife? And what was left in that half-wrapped box left
so casually on their marital bed? In this novel, marriage truly is the
art of war.
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fford: I've had this one on my radar for awhile and it seems to be the perfect summer read: fun, imaginative, and smart. Plus, Alley from What Red Read has only been raving about Fford forever now. Synopsis: Welcome to a surreal
version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine,
cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and
literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual
police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth
poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and
forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as
usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary
detection, until someone begins kidnapping characters from works of
literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Brontë's novel,
Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to
avert a heinous act of literary homicide.
Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan: I read this short story awhile back and freaking loved it. It became so popular FSG offered Sloan a book deal. Fast-forward two years and the book is almost here! Release date October 2nd. Synopsis: The Great Recession has
shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco Web-design
drone—and serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a
ladder like a monkey has landed him a new gig working the night shift at
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job,
Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the
name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in
repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything, instead “checking
out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all
according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic
Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay
concludes, and soon he’s embarked on a complex analysis of the
customers’ behavior and roped his friends into helping to figure out
just what’s going on. But once they bring their findings to Mr.
Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the
bookstore.
