10 COOL BOOKS FROM LE CARRÉ TO KING
Fiction lovers and gifters have a lot of great choices over the next few weeks
Dan Brown will deliver a new thriller, and even Robert Langdon himself — aka Tom Hanks — is dipping his toe into fiction with a collection of short stories. More big names, including Alice Waters, John le Carré, Amy Tan and Matthew Weiner, will soon hit bookstores. A look at 10 cool books coming out in the next three months. 1. A Legacy Of Spies by John le Carré (Viking, fiction, on sale Sept 5) What it’s about: Peter Guillam, now retired from the British Secret Service, is summoned to London to answer questions from a new generation with little patience for Cold War tactics. Cool factor: This is the first le Carré thriller in more than 25 years to feature spymaster George Smiley. 2. Coming To My Senses: The Making Of A Counterculture Cook by Alice Waters (Clarkson Potter, non-fiction, on sale Sept 5)
What it’s about: A memoir by the chef (and cookbook author) who opened Chez Panisse, the influential Berkeley, California, restaurant, when she was 27 in 1971.
Cool factor: Waters, at the forefront of the local/organic food movement, has seen her influence extend all the way to Michelle Obama’s White House garden. 3. The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye by David Lagercrantz (Knopf, fiction, on sale Sept 12) What it’s about: The Girl With The Dragon
Tattoo mega-series continues as imprisoned punk hacker Lisbeth Salander teams with Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist to uncover the truth about her childhood and to exact revenge.
Cool factor: This is the second Millennium sequel written by Lagercrantz and sanctioned by Stieg Larsson’s estate; the first, 2015’s The Girl In The Spider’s Web, was a No.1 USA TODAY best seller.
4. Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King
(Scribner, fiction, on sale Sept 26)
What it’s about: A mysterious sleeping disorder that can cause women to become violent and feral disrupts an Appalachian town where the main employer is a women’s prison. Cool factor: This is the first time Stephen King has co-written a book with his son (also an author), a project he calls a “blessing” and a “thrill”. 5. Origin by Dan Brown (Doubleday, fiction, on sale Oct 3) What it’s about: The action moves to Spain as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon gets caught up in intrigue surrounding a former student’s high-tech discovery. Cool factor: Brown’s series featuring Langdon unravelling cryptic clues and running for his life includes the blockbusters The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol. 6. Grant by Ron Chernow (Penguin Press, non-fiction, on sale Oct. 10)
What it’s about: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of biographies including Alexander Hamilton (the inspiration for the Broadway smash musical Hamilton) and Washington now focuses on Ulysses S. Grant at a time when our nation is relitigating the Civil War. Cool factor: Is Lin-Manuel Miranda busy sharpening his Grant vs. Lee rhymes? We can only hope. 7. Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks
(Knopf, fiction, on sale Oct 17)
What it’s about: Seventeen short stories by the Oscar-winning actor, each involving a different typewriter in some way. (Hanks collects vintage typewriters and has more than 100.)
Cool factor: This marks Hanks’ debut as an author. We think he’s our type, judging by the retro subject. 8. Where The Past Begins by Amy Tan (Ecco, non-fiction, on sale Oct 17) What it’s about: In this “writer’s memoir”, the popular author of novels about Chinese
immigrants reveals memories of her traumatic childhood and shares “heartbreaking” letters to and from her mother.
Cool factor: Tan sheds a personal light on the creative impulse behind best sellers such as The Joy Luck Club and The Valley Of Amazement.
9. Heather, The Totality by Matthew Weiner (Little, Brown, fiction, on sale Nov 7)
What it’s about: The teenage daughter of a well-off Manhattan couple is in the sights of a sociopathic stalker.
Cool factor: The creator of the great AMC series Mad Men says his debut novel was born the day he saw a construction worker
give a “terrifying” look to a beautiful schoolgirl on the Upper East Side; Sally Draper, run! 10. Artemis by Andy Weir (Crown, fiction, on sale Nov 14)
What it’s about: In this sci-fi adventure set on the Moon, 20-something Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara is a small-time smuggler pulled into a conspiracy for control of the city of Artemis.
Cool factor: Weir’s best seller The Martian was the basis for the hit Ridley Scott film starring Matt Damon, and Artemis has been snapped up for the movies by 20th Century Fox and New Regency.