With new books from Ann Patchett, Jamel Brinkley and others, August began with a bang but this week is light on new titles. Think of it as the calm before the biblio-storm.
Some of the biggest names in publishing — and biggest names, period — will hit bookstores in the coming weeks. Fall is always a jam-packed season, especially for titles from our leading literary lights, but the next couple of months present so many superstars that this list of 12 didn't have room for bestselling writers such as Alexander McCall Smith or Richard Osman, who have new entries in their beloved mystery series next month.
Here are the even dozen who made the cut, in order of starry brightness. It all starts with a door-stopper that is destined to cause some pulled muscles.
- Barbra Streisand The "Funny Girl's" memoir, "My Name Is Barbra," is big in every way you can think of. Its press run is 1 million copies, a huge number at a time when only a few books each year sell that many copies. It's, gulp, 1,040 pages. And it's priced at $47, gargantuan even considering inflation. The octogenarian EGOT, who said she's been jotting down notes since 2009, officially announced her autobiography in 2015. It was supposed to be published two years later, but people who need people to tell us the stories of their lives will finally get Streisand's when "My Name" hits stores Nov. 7.
2. John Grisham How many times would you guess "The Firm" author has been asked to write a sequel to that blockbuster debut? A zillion? Well, it's finally here. Lawyer Mitch McDeere, who fled the country after exposing crooks he worked with in "The Firm," is back to lawyering 15 years later in "The Exchange." And back to sticking his nose in business that may again force him to escape to somewhere remote. Oct. 17.
3. Kerry Washington If Streisand weren't finally unleashing her life story, Washington's "Thicker Than Water" would be the biggest Hollywood name on bookstore shelves. Instead, the "Scandal" star will settle for second as she spills the beans on that show, sexism/racism in Hollywood, activism and her marriage to NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha in this tell-all (or at least -some). Sept. 26.
4. Stephen King With "Holly," the horrormeister revisits the empath who starred in his "The Outsider" (as well as the HBO Max series of the same name, where Holly Gibney was played by Cynthia Erivo). Now the proprietor of a detective agency, she's called in on a missing persons case that, like "The Outsider," has an uncanny dimension. This time that dimension lives in the home of a seemingly kind elderly couple. Sept. 5
5. Kate DiCamillo Jonesing for some new DiCamillo? The Minneapolis writer published a picture book last Christmas, but it's been two years since her last novel, "The Beatryce Prophecy." She's been busy. "Puppets," the first in a planned trilogy of illustrated fairy tales, hits stores Oct. 10 and next spring brings two more from the two-time Newbery Award winner, a middle-grade novel called "Ferris" and the first in a new chapter book series.
6. Jhumpa Lahiri With "Roman Stories," the Pulitzer Prize winner returns to the format that earned her that award for "Interpreter of Maladies": short stories. Inspired by her move to Rome and efforts to learn Italian, "Roman Stories" comes with an unusual flex: The U.K. native wrote the stories in Italian and then translated them, with the help of Todd Portnowitz, into English. Oct. 10.
