USA TODAY International Edition
New and noteworthy
USA TODAY’s Jocelyn McClurg scopes out the hottest books on sale each week.
1Woman of God
by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro ( Little, Brown, fiction,
on sale Monday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A woman poised to make history by becoming the first pope is surrounded by enemies. THE BUZZ:
Patterson and Paetro already have teamed up for two USA TODAY best sellers this year: 15th Affair, which landed at No. 1 in May; and The Trial, a BookShots title that hit No. 2 in July.
2 Born to Run
by Bruce Springsteen ( Simon & Schuster, non- fiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A memoir by the iconic rocker — and he even wrote it himself. The book already THE BUZZ: has made headlines, with Springsteen’s disclosure to Vanity Fair that he has long suffered from depression.
3Imperfect Union
by Chuck Raasch ( Stackpole, non- fiction, on sale Saturday)
Recounts story WHAT IT’S ABOUT: of New York Times correspondent Sam Wilkeson, who wrote a famous dispatch from Gettysburg after learning that his son, a Union lieutenant, had died in the battle.
Comes THE BUZZ: with a recommendation from Ken Burns ( The Civil War): “An important book, one that contains both an aerial and intimate view of the human cost of the greatest battle ever fought in North America.”
4 The Fever Code
by James Dashner ( Delacorte, fiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: In this prequel to The Maze Runner, we learn how Thomas built the Maze and how the Gladers met. Dashner’s THE BUZZ: best- selling dystopian young- adult series Dashner has spun off two hit movie adaptations ( The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials).
5 Mercury
by Margot Livesey ( Harper, fiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A woman’s obsession with a thoroughbred boarded at her stables leads to violence and threatens her marriage. THE BUZZ: It’s an Indie Next pick of independent booksellers. A “riveting psychological novel,” says Mary Cotton of Newtonville Books in Newton, Mass.