15 new titles for the long, lazy days ahead

Whether you’re headed to a beach house or the backyard for what’s left of holiday vacation, new books will make the long, lazy days ahead even better. Here are 15 of the titles we’re most looking forward to reading before New Year’s.

“LITTLE SISTER” BY BARBARA GOWDY

Rose Bowan has a mystery on her hands: Every time a thunderstorm moves in, she is transported into the body of another woman — living her life, seeing through her eyes. Is it real? Is Rose having migraines or dreams, or is this really happening? And why has her mother, who has dementia, suddenly started talking about Rose’s little sister, who died in childhood?

“THEFT BY FINDING: DIARIES (1977-2002)” BY DAVID SEDARIS

It’s hard to resist the wit of David Sedaris, whether it’s delivered in a book, on stage or on the radio. Now he has selected favorite passages from his private journals, where many of those essays and stories were born — memories, experiences, deep thoughts and outrageously funny observations. By the way, this past summer’s release is the first of two volumes, so we can look forward to even more of this private Sedaris.

“A HOUSE AMONG THE TREES” BY JULIA GLASS

When famous children’s author Mort Lear dies unexpectedly, he leaves everything he owns to his longtime assistant. As she untangles the complications Mort left behind, she finds herself dealing with an angry museum curator, her own embittered brother and a British movie star who has been cast to portray Mort in a film. And along the way, she learns disturbing things she never knew about her boss. Glass’ story is fiction, but fans of Maurice Sendak will recognize pieces of this tale.

“DO NOT BECOME ALARMED” BY MAILE MELOY

This story of a nightmare vacation starts with a couple of families together on a cruise. When the ship stops at a port in Central America, the tour bus breaks down, and the kids head off for the beach. And then they disappear. That’s when Maile Meloy’s story becomes a thriller, with a fastpaced narration from two perspectives, the frantic parents and their missing children.

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY YOU LOVE ME” BY SHERMAN ALEXIE

Sherman Alexie has written a memoir about his childhood on the Spokane Indian Reservation — his brain surgery as an infant, his alcoholic parents, his difficulties growing up. But primarily, the popular novelist’s book is about his mother, a complicated, unpredictable and sometimes abusive woman he spent a lifetime battling — and, at her death, sought to understand.

“THE GRAYBAR HOTEL” BY CURTIS DAWKINS

This short-story collection offers unsparing, detailed glimpses of prison life. The stories are fiction, but they’re based on truth: Author Curtis Dawkins, who has an MFA in fiction writing, is also a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without parole.

“HUNGER: A MEMOIR OF (MY) BODY”

Essayist Roxane Gay’s work is always smart, often funny and unflinchingly honest. In this memoir, her honesty is searing as she recounts her history with food, self-worth and “wildly undisciplined” body — a history that started with trauma and evolved into a blend of shame and self-confidence.

“THE CHANGELING” BY VICTOR LAVALLE

This is a perfect horror read. When firsttime parents Apollo and Emma have their baby, strange things start happening. Emma ties up her husband, murders their child and vanishes — and when a stranger claims to know where she is, Apollo sets off on a mysterious, sometimes magical quest to find her.

“THE REASON YOU’RE ALIVE” BY MATTHEW QUICK

David Granger, 68 and still haunted by his time in Vietnam, has surgery for a brain tumor and decides he needs to right a wrong from long ago. He sets out to find a man named Clayton Fire Bear — an American Indian soldier David once had to discipline — and return a knife he stole. Author Matthew Quick’s name may sound familiar; he’s the author of “The Silver Linings Playbook.”

“AMERICAN FIRE: LOVE, ARSON AND LIFE IN A VANISHING LAND” BY MONICA HESSE

Three years ago, Washington Post writer Monica Hesse covered a hearing for a rural Virginia man who pleaded guilty to 67 counts of arson. Then she learned that the rash of fires in Accomack County — 77 of them, one after the other — was part of a strange love story. “American Fire” dives deep into the lives of the couple who set those fires — and into the story of a downtrodden place that, for five long months, wouldn’t stop burning.

“WHAT WE LOSE” BY ZINZI CLEMMONS

In the white Philadelphia suburbs, Thandi — the daughter of mixed-race parents — has always felt like an outsider. But when she loses her mother to cancer, Thandi begins to search for meaning, love and a connection to her mother’s South African roots. This is the first novel from Zinzi Clemmons, who uses photographs, song lyrics and blog posts to tell a partly autobiographical story.

“A TALENT FOR MURDER” BY ANDREW WILSON

It’s a real-life mystery that has never been explained: In 1926, mystery writer Agatha Christie left her house, abandoned her car and disappeared for 11 days. Christie, in her mid-30s at the time, claimed that she had amnesia and couldn’t remember what had happened or why. Now, nearly 100 years later, Andrew Wilson has written a novel that imagines what might have happened to her in that missing chunk of time — a story based partly on research and partly on his imaginings.

“THE BODY IN THE CLOUDS” BY ASHLEY HAY

In this unusually imaginative story, men in three different centuries see the same thing: a man falling through the sky above Sydney Harbor. One is an 18th-century astronomer; another is a 1930s bridge worker; and the third is a 21st-century banker coming home to Australia. What do they see, and why do they see it? Ashley Hay’s novel follows the three of them, who are somehow, strangely, connected through the centuries.

“ARE YOU SLEEPING” BY KATHLEEN BARBER

Anyone who has fallen head-first into a podcast such as “S-Town” or “Serial” will appreciate the plot of Kathleen Barber’s novel. When a hit podcast reopens a longclosed murder case, the dead man’s daughter, who spent a decade trying to move on, is dragged right back into her past. She has to face — and maybe learn — the truth.

“A STRANGER IN THE HOUSE” BY SHARI LAPENA

Karen Krupp bolts out of her house one evening, races to the wrong side of town and slams her car into a pole — but when she wakes up in the hospital, she says she can’t remember the accident or why she left the house. As the mystery grows, the police, her husband and even Karen aren’t sure what to believe. This is more psychological suspense from the author of last year’s “The Couple Next Door.”