Fall books preview: Rowling, Springsteen, Wally Lamb and more
Book lovers have a lot to be happy about this fall. Big names abound, from J.K. Rowling to Bruce Springsteen to Ann Patchett to Bill O'Reilly. USA TODAY’s Jocelyn McClurg offers highlights of the season, in a wealth of categories.
Big fall popular fiction:
Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central, on sale Oct. 4)
What it’s about: Successful ad man Russell Green suddenly finds himself jobless and a single father to a 6-year-old.
Cool factor: This fall marks the 20th anniversary of The Notebook, the first in a long line of successful Sparks weepies (and movies).
More fall popular fiction: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult (Oct. 11); Paris for One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes (Oct. 18); I’ll Take You There by Wally Lamb (Nov. 22).
Big fall mystery/thriller:
The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown, Nov. 8)
What it’s about: A female ex-agent on the run fights to clear her name and save her life.
Cool factor: The author of the smash Twilight teen vampire series channels her inner Jason Bourne in her first adult thriller.
More fall mysteries and thrillers:Home by Harlan Coben (Sept. 20);The Whistler by John Grisham (Oct. 25); The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly (Nov. 1); Night School by Lee Child (Nov. 7); Chaos by Patricia Cornwell (Nov. 15).
Big fall celebrity:
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen (Simon & Schuster, Sept. 27)
What it’s about: Will the beloved rocker (who turns 67 on Sept. 23) prove he’s The Boss of music memoirs as he tells his life story?
Cool factor: Springsteen will release a companion 18-track album on his birthday called Chapter and Verse; it includes five previously unreleased songs.
More fall celeb titles:Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction by Elizabeth Vargas (Sept. 13); In Such Good Company by Carol Burnett (Sept. 13); Around the Way Girl by Taraji P. Henson (Oct. 11); A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston (Oct. 11); Not Dead Yet by Phil Collins (Oct. 25); Thanks for the Money by Joel McHale (Oct. 25); Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries by Andy Cohen (Nov. 15); Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick (Nov. 15); Settle for More by Megyn Kelly (Nov. 15); The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (Nov. 22).
Big fall kids/teens:
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic, on sale Nov. 18)
What it’s about: It’s the screenplay for the movie (opening Nov. 18), a Harry Potter spinoff starring Eddie Redmayne as Magizoologist Newt Scamander. OK, we’re cheating because this one is for “kids of all ages.”
Cool factor: To imagine the frenzy likely to greet Rowling’s first screenplay, based on her No. 1 best-selling book, look no further than the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script.
Read an excerpt from James Dashner's 'Fever Code'
More fall kids: Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs (on sale now); The Fever Code by James Dashner (Sept. 27); Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan (Oct. 4); Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down by Jeff Kinney (Nov. 1).
Big fall memoir/biography:
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories of My Life by John le Carré (Viking, on sale Sept. 6)
What it’s about: Le Carré (real name, David Cornwell), author of such espionage classics as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and The Night Manager, writes a memoir.
Cool factor: What could be more intriguing than the fiction spymaster pulling back the curtain on his own story, which includes serving in British intelligence during the Cold War?
More fall memoirs/bios: She Made Me Laugh: My Friend Nora Ephron by Richard Cohen (Sept. 6); American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White (Oct. 4);Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner (Oct. 11); Walk Through Walls by Marina Abramovic (Oct. 25); Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses, and Liberation of Joan Rivers by Leslie Bennetts (Nov. 15).
Big fall literary fiction:
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (Harper, on sale Sept. 13)
What it’s about: Patchett follows six kids in a blended family into adulthood in this novel that opens in 1960s California.
Cool factor: Novels such as State of Wonder and Bel Canto have made Patchett a book-group favorite, and this one is sure to click with clubs as well.
More fall literary fiction:Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer (Sept. 6); Nutshell by Ian McEwan (Sept. 13);The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (Sept. 20); Swing Time by Zadie Smith (Nov. 15); Moonglow by Michael Chabon (Nov. 22).
Big fall non-fiction:
Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (Henry Holt, on sale Sept. 13)
What it’s about: A tick-tock account of the war in the Pacific and Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan.
Cool factor: A bit of a departure for the authors’ hugely successful “Killing” franchise (Killing Kennedy, Killing Patton, Killing Lincoln) as they dispatch an entire nation this time.
More fall non-fiction: The Year of Voting Dangerously by Maureen Dowd (Sept. 13); A Truck Full of Money by Tracy Kidder (Sept. 20); Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard (Sept. 20); A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life by Pat Conroy (Oct. 25); Jump: Take the Leap of Faith to Achieve Your Life of Abundance by Steve Harvey (Dec. 5).