Eleven Brand New Books Not To Be Missed: More New Books by Great Writers

Once I posted New Books By Geat Writers, I realized that there were an entire world of books that I left out. Of course, I can't possibly list them all but here are eleven more. Its a long list so get ready to scroll. And it is comprised of black, white, indie published , mainstream, accomplished, beginning, women and men, poetry, fiction and nonfiction.

Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden (released May 1, 2010 but there are some great recent reviews) "McFadden's lively and loving rendering of New York hews closely to the jazz-inflected city of myth; McFadden has a wonderful ear for dialogue, and her entertaining prose equally accommodates humor and pathos"--New York Times Books  See this great New York Times Fiction Chronicle review here.




Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan (release date September 7, 2010) McMillan's Waiting to Exhale was more than just a bestselling novel-its publication was a watershed moment in literary history. McMillan's sassy and vibrant story about four African American women struggling to find love and their place in the world touched a cultural nerve, inspired a blockbuster film, and generated a devoted audience. Now, McMillan revisits Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine, and Robin fifteen years later. Each is at her own midlife crossroads: Savannah has awakened to the fact that she's made too many concessions in her marriage, and decides to face life single again-at fifty-one. Bernadine has watched her megadivorce settlement dwindle, been swindled by her husband number two, and conned herself into thinking that a few pills will help distract her from her pain. Robin has an all-American case of shopaholism, while the big dream of her life-to wear a wedding dress- has gone unrealized. And for years, Gloria has taken happiness and security for granted. But being at the wrong place at the wrong time can change everything. All four are learning to heal past hurts and to reclaim their joy and their dreams; but they return to us full of spirit, sass, and faith in one another. They've exhaled: now they are learning to breathe. --From the product details on Amazon.com

This is probably the Terry McMillan book we've all been waiting for since Waiting to Exhale. Go to the grand Ms. Terry's website for tours, commentary on writing, etc.

Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story-graphic novel by Mat Johnson, Simone Gane (illustrator) (released August 24, 2010) Dark Rain is more than the story of two ex-cons and their New Orleans bank heist in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Johnson draws both the good and bad of the post-Katrina landscape in his characters, while illustrator Simon Gane's pen and ink artwork enhances the story without ever overpowering it.--From Largehearted Boy

The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin edited and introduced by Randall Kenan (Let the Dead Bury the Dead, The Fire This Time and Visitation of Spirits:) (released August 24, 2010) recently featured on NPR's Morning Edition. and Newsweek. )“These pieces, previously uncollected,” says the LA Times, “not only give us a sense of the physical distances he traveled to ‘bear witness’ but the intellectual latitude he stretched.” --LA Times

Adam & Eve: A Novel by Sena Jeter Naslund (author of Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, Abundance and other, also director of Spalding University's brief residency MFA in Creative Writing Program)
(release date September 28, 2010) What happened to Eden?  The New York Times bestselling author of Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, and Abundance returns with an audacious and provocative novel that envisions a world where science and faith contend for the allegiance of a new Adam & Eve. --product information Amazon.com

Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride by Frank X Walker. (Release party at at Morris Book Shop at 7 p.m. on September 17.)  In these poems, Frank X Walker immerses himself in the story of legendary African-American jockey Isaac Murphy (1861-1896). The son of a slave, Murphy rose to the top of thoroughbred racing in a brilliant career that brought him wealth and fame. In Murphy’s time, thoroughbred racing was dominated by African-American jockeys. In the poems imagined/spoken here by Frank X Walker we hear the voices of Murphy and his wife Lucy, his trainer Eli Jordan, and his parents James and America Burns. The poems shine a light on the life of America’s most celebrated black jockey, his family and community, and the historical canvas on which his extraordinary life played out. --product information from publisher. Click here for a link to Old Cove Press where you can purchase the book. Or go to Morris Books for more information about the releae party.




Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication) by Natasha Tretheway (release date September 1, 2010)  Beyond Katrina is poet Natasha Trethewey’s very personal profile of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and of the people there whose lives were forever changed by hurricane Katrina. Trethewey spent her childhood in Gulfport, where much of her mother’s extended family, including her younger brother, still lives. As she worked to understand the devastation that followed the hurricane, Trethewey found inspiration in Robert Penn Warren’s book Segregation: The Inner Conflict in the South, in which he spoke with southerners about race in the wake of the Brown decision, capturing an event of wide impact from multiple points of view. Weaving her own memories with the experiences of family, friends, and neighbors, Trethewey traces the erosion of local culture and the rising economic dependence on tourism and casinos. And more.She recently appeared in a great interview on NPR's FreshAir and this past Sunday's New York Times.





The Blessings of the Animals: A Novel (P.S.) by Katrina Kittle (author of Traveling Light, Two Truths and a Lie, and the Kindness of Strangers) (released August 3, 2010)Veterinarian Cami Anderson has hit a rough patch. Stymied by her recent divorce, she wonders if there are secret ingredients to a happy, long-lasting marriage or if the entire institution is outdated and obsolete. Couples all around her are approaching important milestones. Her parents are preparing to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. Her brother and his partner find their marriage dreams legally blocked. Her former sister-in-law—still her best friend—is newly engaged. The youthfully exuberant romance of her teenage daughter is developing complications. And three separate men—including her ex-husband—are becoming entangled in Cami's messy post-marital love life. But as she struggles to come to terms with her own doubts amid this chaotic circus of relationships, Cami finds strange comfort in an unexpected confidant: an angry, unpredictable horse in her care. With the help of her equine soul mate, she begins to make sense of marriage's great mysteries—and its disconnects. See all of Katrina's wonderful book tours, interviews and reviews here.




Billie Girl (LeapLit)  by Vickie Weaver (release date September 1, 2010) Abandoned as in infant because of her incessant crying, Billie Girl is raised by two women who are brothers. Her life, a gender-bending puzzle filled with dark humor, is a series of encounters with strangers who struggle along with what they are given: a bigamist husband, a long-lost daughter named after a car, a lesbian preacher's wife, a platonic second husband who loved her adoptive father. Twin themes of sexuality and euthanasia run throughout. In a journey from hard-dirt Georgia farm to end-of-life nursing home, Billie Girl comes to understand the mercy of killing. For more information on Vickie see her website here.
 




Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans (release date September 23, 2010) Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self is a collection of eight short stories, some of which have appeared in magazines and anthologies including The Paris Review, A Public Space, Best American Short Stories, and New Stories From the South. Read her interview with the wonderful Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Wench at SheWrites. She's 26 years old and a writer to watch.



Some Sing, Some Cry: A Novel by Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayez (release date September 14, 2010) award-winning writer Ntozake Shange and real-life sister, award-winning playwright Ifa Bayeza achieve nothing less than a modern classic in this epic story of the Mayfield family. Opening dramatically at Sweet Tamarind, a rice and cotton plantation on an island off South Carolina's coast, we watch as recently emancipated Bette Mayfield says her goodbyes before fleeing for the mainland. With her granddaughter, Eudora, in tow, she heads to Charleston. There, they carve out lives for themselves as fortune-teller and seamstress. Dora will marry, the Mayfield line will grow, and we will follow them on an journey through the watershed events of America's troubled, vibrant history—from Reconstruction to both World Wars, from the Harlem Renaissance to Vietnam and the modern day. Shange and Bayeza give us a monumental story of a family and of America, of songs and why we have to sing them, of home and of heartbreak, of the past and of the future, bright and blazing ahead. See an interview with the sisters on PW.

Ok folks, we have a lot of reading to do!