Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Anticipating 2013

 
It's been a few weeks since I've managed to do a Top Ten Tuesday, but this week we're doing one of my favorite things - anticipating all the great books to come next year.  Here are a few books I'd love to get my hands on in 2013.  You can see everybody else's lists at The Broke and the Bookish and get even more excited for the bookish year to come!
 
 


1. The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister (January 24/Putnam) - I can't tell you how excited I was when I saw there would be a sequel to The School of Essential Ingredients.  Erica Bauermeister gets a chance to cement her place in the top 10 favorite authors discovered since starting to book blog.  ;-)

2. And the Mountains Roared by Khaled Hosseini (May/Riverhead, I think) -  Is it weird to be looking forward to the new book from a really well-loved author you have actually never read?  My parents are always on my back to read The Kite Runner, which I haven't, but I'm curious about Hosseini's new one just the same.

3. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra (May 7/Hogarth) - This stems more or less from my growing interest in Hogarth as an imprint.  Plus, it just sounds good - "In the final days of December 2004, in a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa hides in the woods when her father is abducted by Russian forces. Fearing for her life, she flees with their neighbor Akhmed--a failed physician--to the bombed-out hospital, where Sonja, the one remaining doctor, treats a steady stream of wounded rebels and refugees and mourns her missing sister. Over the course of five dramatic days, Akhmed and Sonja reach back into their pasts to unravel the intricate mystery of coincidence, betrayal, and forgiveness that unexpectedly binds them and decides their fate."

4. A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri (January 31/Riverhead) - They're calling this "a magical novel about a young Iranian woman lifted from grief by her powerful imagination and love of Western culture."  Yes, please.

5. The Mirage by Matt Ruff (February 7/Harper Perennial) - This one in Harper's catalog caught my eye a long time ago.  It's alternate history that imagines the U.S. as a struggling third world nation, and Christian fundamentalists are attacking the United Arab States.  Could be interesting and provocative, no?

6. Sever by Lauren DeStefano (February 12/Simon and Schuster) -  Okay, so maybe I haven't read the middle book of DeStefano's Chemical Garden trilogy yet.  That shouldn't stop me from salivating over this one, should it?

7. Red Horse by Alex Adams (August 20/Atria) - This is a continuation of Adams' post-apocalyptic trilogy that started with White Horse which I read and loved this past spring.  Can't wait to see where it goes!

8. The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh (April 4/Amy Einhorn/Putnam) - I'm absolutely all in for a good story set in Africa, and they're pitching this as the South African Gone with the Wind - "The Fever Tree is a compelling portrait of colonial South Africa, its raw beauty and deprivation alive in equal measure. But above all it is a love story about how—just when we need it most—fear can blind us to the truth."

9. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (April 2/Reagan Arthur) - Neato premise much?  "On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization."

10. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline (April 2/William Morrow Paperbacks) - "The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask."

What new books are you looking forward to reading next year?

13 comments:

  1. Oooh, I hadn't heard of the Kate Atkinson. Want, want, want!

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  2. Wow, I haven't heard of ANY of these, but they ALL sound good. Gah! How am I ever going to read them plus all the books I've already got?? So many books, so little time ...

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  3. Ooh, some great-looking titles, there!

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  4. Life After Life is on my list too! I'm looking forward to Beth Hoffman's and Sarah Pekkanen's new books as well.

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  5. Most of these are new to me, but they all look fabulous!

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  6. Nice list! Hadn't heard of Life After Life, but now I can't wait to read it! :)

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  7. I've heard of the Eric B. book but not the rest. You know you can request a copy via Edelweiss right? ;-) I recently browsed NetGalley and there are so many books I want to read including a graphic novel called Primates. ;-)

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  8. Great picks! I have to get on the Chemical Garden trilogy, like, immediately.

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  9. I love that your list is so different from all the others I've read. I can't say that I've only heard of one of these books! I'll have to look into the others!

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  10. Man, The Fever Tree almost made it onto my Top Ten. You have some great choices, and I have some new titles for my TBR list :)
    Thanks for stopping by earlier.

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  11. Thank you for opening my eyes up to some more books! I will have to check out Life After Life, The Fever Tree, The Mirage and A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea.

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  12. oh my goodness - such great books! I haven't read Erica Bauermeister's books yet but your endorsement has made me put them on the list. Definitely read The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns - amazing.

    Fever Tree sounds wonderful - thanks for drawing it to my attention!

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