Fall Reading: Books with Buzz.

Although autumn doesn't start officially until September 22, it feels like it is already here with kids back in school, football on television, and leaves falling in the yard.  It's sad to see the summer end.  However, we can take solace in the fact that as the weather cools and the days continue to get shorter, there will be more time for reading and lots of interesting new books available.

Here are a few books that are already getting a buzz, and which I will likely read in the coming weeks:

• J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, is releasing her first book written specifically for adults, The Casual Vacancy.  If The Casual Vacancy is even close to being as interesting as the Potter books, I'll be happy.

• Lee Child has another Jack Reacher book available, A Wanted Man.  Although I skipped Reacher's last outings, The Affair and a Kindle-only story, Deep Down, I'm ready for another Reacher yarn.

• Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan.  McEwan writes beautifully.  I enjoyed the experience of reading Atonement and Saturday and look forward to this new work which The Irish Times described as an espionage novel and love story that is readable and funny.  

• Sutton by J.R. Moehringer.  A novel about one of America's most famous bank robbers, Willie Sutton.  J.R. Moehringer was a correspondent for the L.A. Times and is the author of the memoir The Tender Bar.  

• The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro.  Art thieves, obsessed collectors, forgery:  It all sounds exciting to read about.

• Dead Anyway by Chris Knopf.   I'm a big fan of Chris Knopf's books, including the recent Ice Cap.  In the reviews I've looked at of Dead Anyway, Knopf reportedly goes in a different direction with this book.  I'm looking forward to checking it out.

• The Return of the Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet.  Two novella-length stories by Dashiell Hammet, this book was mentioned by Otto Penzler in an LA Times article last spring.  I absolutely love the Thin Man movies and definitely plan to read this book.  

If there is a particular book, new or otherwise, that you are planning to read this fall, let us know in the comments.

Best Seller Round-Up

"To choose a good book, look in an inquisitor’s prohibited list." ~John Aikin

If following John Aikin's advice for finding a good book, quoted above, sounds better than consulting the best seller list below, then check out the American Library Associations lists of banned and/or challenged books. The ALA collects this information as part of its promotion of the freedom to read. The lists include:

1) Banned and/or challenged novels from the Radcliffe Publishing Course top 100 novels of the 20th century. I'm proud to say that I've read most of these; hurray for liberal arts education.

2) The top 100 banned and/or challenged books of 2000 - 2007. Amazingly, the Harry Potter series is number one on this list. Go figure! Others books on this list I've read but haven't thought about in, well, in decades such as Go Ask Alice by Anonymous. In looking over the list, it seems like the world has changed so little, while at the same time it has changed so much.

As Aikin suggested, choose a good book while also flexing your First Amendment muscles by purchasing, or checking out from the library, a few banned books.

I. The New York Times.
Published April 10, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Shack, William P. Young.
Fiction Hardcover: Long Lost, Harlan Coben.



Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.

II. Los Angeles Times
Published April 12, 2009.

Fiction Paperback: The Shack, William P. Young.
Fiction Hardcover: True Detectives by Jonathan Kellerman.
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Nonfiction Hardcover: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve Harvey.

III. Northern California Independent Booksellers.
For the week ending April 5, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Elegance of the Hedgehog Muriel Barbery.
Fiction Hardcover: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows .
Nonfiction Paperback: Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin.
Nonfiction Hardcover: Outliers, The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell.

IV. Heartland Indie Bestseller List.
Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association
For the week ending March 29, 2009.

Fiction Paperback (Trade): The Shack, William P. Young.
Fiction Hardcover: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows .
Nonfiction Hardcover: Liberty and Tyranny, Mark R. Levin.
Nonfiction Paperback (Trade): Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin.