USA TODAY International Edition
New and noteworthy
USA TODAY’s Jocelyn McClurg scopes out the hottest books on sale each week.
1 Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story by Jewel ( Blue Rider Press, non- fiction, on sale Tuesday)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Memoir about the singer’s hardscrabble life and climb to stardom arrives along with a new folkie album, Picking Up the Pieces.
THE BUZZ: “Moving … should strike all the right notes with a wide selection of readers,” says Kirkus Reviews.
2 The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr ( Harper, non- fiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: The best- selling memoirist explains what makes the form tick in this book based on a graduate seminar she teaches at Syracuse University.
THE BUZZ: Karr’s memoir The Liars’ Club will be celebrated with a 20th- anniversary edition from Penguin Classics on Nov. 10, with a new foreword by Lena Dunham.
3 Yes, My Accent Is Real by Kunal Nayyar ( Atria, non- fiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Raj from The Big Bang Theory takes a spin in the actor- writes- humorous- life- story genre. THE BUZZ: TV’s top- rated comedy returns for its ninth season on CBS Sept. 21.
4 House of Thieves by Charles Belfoure ( Sourcebooks, fiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: In Gilded Age New York City, a society architect plans robberies of buildings he has designed so he can pay off his son’s gambling debts; by the author of The Paris Architect. THE BUZZ: It’s an Indie Next pick of independent booksellers. “A great read,” says Stephanie Crowe of Page & Palette in Fairhope, Ala.
5 The Marvels by Brian Selznick ( Scholastic, fiction, for ages 10 and up, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Selznick’s latest illustrated wonder for young readers uses pictures and text to tell two stories: one set in 1766 with shipwreck survivor Billy Marvel, the other in 1990 as a boy named Joseph runs away from school to his uncle’s house. Selznick THE BUZZ: won the prestigious Caldecott Medal for Brian The Invention of Selznick Hugo Cabret, which became the Martin Scorsese movie Hugo.