Best New Books to Read: September 2015 Releases
Purity by Jonathan Franzen
Millennial malaise, digital over saturation, masculinity and contemporary feminism are on the menu in Jonathan Franzen’s new sweeping epic starring a mid-twenties college graduate named Pip “Purity” Tyler. (FSG, September 1)
Writing Across the Landscape by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Another big book – this one chock full of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s travel journals, spanning 50 years from 1960 to 2010. In these writings, Ferlinghetti criss crosses the globe from France and Italy to South America to the Soviet Union and the Trans-Siberian Railroad and more. The sketches and poems within are icing on the cake. (Liveright, September 4)
Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash
Ron Rash once again returns again to the landscape and people of Appalachian North Carolina where a veteran sheriff and a park ranger confront the demons of disillusionment and betrayal in their relationships with each other and the land they love. (Ecco, September 8)
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie
More than a little mythology inspires Salman Rushdie’s latest novel in which descendants of the jinn return to the human world. Magical realism and pop culture blend in a thunderstorm of a narrative. (Random House, September 8)
The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
Who better than Mary Karr, the author of three critically acclaimed memoirs – The Liars’ Club, Cherry, and Lit – to write this book? Karr has also taught memoir-writing for 30 years. In The Art of Memoir, she distills her practical and academic experience into a succinct and definitive guide to the form. (Harper, September 15)
The Blue Guitar by John Banville
Banville’s is the story of Oliver Otway Orme, a 50-year-old painter and a petty thief who only steals for pleasure and finds himself on the lamb, having been discovered guilty of a different sort of thievery. Banville’s trademark wit and artful writing is on display here. (Knopf, September 15)
Quicksand by Steve Toltz
Steve Toltz , author of the Booker-shortlisted A Fraction of the Whole, is back with a darkly hilarious satire about friendship and art in the story of Liam, a writer and a cop, and his lifelong friend Aldo. (Simon & Schuster, September 15)
Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads by Paul Theroux
You may be familiar with Paul Theroux’s novels, which include The Lower River and The Mosquito Coast, or you might have read his travel books – The Great Railway Bazaar and In Patagonia among them. Deep South falls into the latter category. In it, Theroux seeks out the landscape and characters of the southern parts of the United States. (Houghton Mifflin, September 29)
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
The new novel from Margaret Atwood began life as a serial for Byliner. In it, Atwood takes us once again into a dystopic future in which her characters are forced into terrible circumstances. Stan and Charmaine, living out of their car, find an opportunity to have a roof over their heads once again, but that opportunity comes at a freedom-limiting cost. (Nan A. Talese, September 29)
- Just Kids by Patti Smith (Illustrated Edition) - February 1, 2020
- We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer - September 20, 2019
- Fall, or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson - June 18, 2019
