{"id":101923,"date":"2025-08-22T13:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T13:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/101923\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T13:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T13:46:07","slug":"fall-is-books-biggest-season-expect-some-long-awaited-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/101923\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall is books’ biggest season. Expect some long-awaited returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 In the decade since she published her acclaimed debut novel, \u201cThe Turner House,\u201d Angela Flournoy<\/a> has confronted a few delays, welcome and otherwise, en route to completing her second book: her first child, a pandemic, speaking engagements, the occasional essay and, throughout, the challenges of creating a work of imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith nonfiction, you’re usually doing it on a deadline, there’s a constraint of time, and when it’s over, it’s over,\u201d says Flournoy, whose novel \u201cThe Wilderness\u201d is out this fall. \u201cWhen you’re working with facts, they’re not really malleable. But with novels I create the reality. And the timing is up to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upcoming literary season will feature many books<\/a> you might call long- or eagerly awaited: It will be in part a story of comebacks, completions and follow-ups, with some of the book world’s biggest names returning to fiction after absences of a decade or more.<\/p>\n

Thomas Pynchon’s \u201cShadow Ticket\u201d<\/a> is his first novel since 2013’s \u201cBleeding Edge.\u201d Kiran Desai’s<\/a> \u201cThe Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny\u201d is her first novel since her celebrated \u201cThe Inheritance of Loss\u201d came out 20 years ago. Wendell Berry<\/a> breaks a long absence from fiction with \u201cMarce Catlett,\u201d narrated by his alter ego and fellow Kentuckian, Andy Catlett. George Packer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, will publish his first novel since the 1990s, \u201cThe Emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Land of Sweet Forever\u201d<\/a> compiles stories and essays from the late Harper Lee<\/a>, who in 2015 stunned the world by authorizing the release of \u201cGo Set a Watchman,\u201d a precursor to her classic \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird.\u201d Fiction also is expected from Patricia Lockwood<\/a>, Ian McEwan<\/a>, Thomas McGuane, Gish Jen, Ken Follett<\/a> and John Irving<\/a>, while two Booker Prize winners will have memoirs out: Margaret Atwood<\/a> has written \u201cBook of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts\u201d and Arundhati Roy,<\/a> best known for \u201cThe God of Small Things,\u201d will publish \u201cMother Mary Comes to Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some books arrive highly anticipated, even if the wait was relatively short. R.F. Kuang’s<\/a> \u201cKatabasis\u201d is her first novel since the bestselling satire \u201cYellowface,\u201d which came out in 2023. Megha Majumdar<\/a> follows her acclaimed debut from 2020, \u201cA Burning,\u201d with \u201cA Guardian and a Thief.\u201d Salman Rushdie\u2019s<\/a> story collection, \u201cThe Eleventh Hour,\u201d is his first book of fiction since he survived a stabbing attack in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe Love You Bunny,\u201d the follow-up to Mona Awad\u2019s dark campus satire from 2019, \u201cBunny,\u201d is a meta-tale of a novelist gone viral.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo book has stuck with me longer than \u2018Bunny.\u2019 I missed the fever-dreamy world of it so much,\u201d Awad wrote in an email. \u201cI think part of the reason had to do with the incredibly creative and rich reader response, which I still can\u2019t believe. It kept the story alive and expanding in my head and I felt compelled to return.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thrills, chills, romance<\/p>\n

\u201cGone Before Goodbye\u201d pairs Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon<\/a> with master thriller writer Harlan Coben. \u201cDa Vinci Code\u201d author Dan Brown<\/a> brings back protagonist Robert Langdon in \u201cThe Secret of Secrets,\u201d and \u201cExit Strategy\u201d is the latest Jack Reacher novel from brothers Lee and Andrew Child. Richard Osman’s \u201cThursday Murder Club\u201d series continues with \u201cThe Impossible Fortune\u201d and Mick Herron has written his ninth \u201cSlough House\u201d book, \u201cClown Town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Child-friendly tension will arrive in a new edition of \u201cHansel and Gretel,\u201d<\/a> as written by Stephen King, with illustrations from the archives of the late Maurice Sendak.<\/p>\n

New romance and romantasy is expected from Tessa Bailey, Harley Laroux and Ana Huang, whose \u201cThe Defender\u201d is the second book in her \u201cGods of the Game\u201d series. Ali Hazelwood follows her paranormal hit \u201cBride\u201d with \u201cMate\u201d and Brynne Weaver begins the \u201cSeasons of Carnage\u201d series with a tale of serial killers in love, \u201cTourist Season.\u201d Erin A. Craig, known for such scary tales as \u201cHouse of Salt and Sorrows,\u201d has written \u201cA Land So Wide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrities telling all<\/p>\n

Priscilla Presley’s<\/a> \u201cSoftly, As I Leave You\u201d continues her story from the memoir \u201cElvis and Me,\u201d which ended with their breakup and Elvis’ death, in 1977. (The book was completed before her current legal battle with a former business partner). Michael J. Fox<\/a> remembers the ’80s in \u201cFuture Boy,\u201d Paul McCartney<\/a> looks back on his post-Beatles work in \u201cWings\u201d and Patti Smith<\/a> reflects on childhood, love and grief in \u201cBread of Angels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memoirs also are coming from Lionel Richie<\/a> and Anthony Hopkins, Kenny Chesney<\/a> and Cameron Crowe.<\/a> Charlie Sheen opens up about his scandalous life in \u201cThe Book of Sheen\u201d and Emmy-nominated actor Cheryl Hines<\/a>, wife of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,<\/a> is scheduled to release \u201cCheryl Hines Unscripted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith humor, wisdom, and unflinching honesty, Cheryl navigates the highs and lows of fame, family, and an unexpected foray into politics \u2014 complete with twists no one saw coming,\u201d the publisher, Skyhorse, describes her book.<\/p>\n

A break from Washington<\/p>\n

Publishers have said that they didn’t expect books on President Donald Trump<\/a> to have the same appeal as they did during his first term; apart from Jonathan Karl\u2019s election chronicle \u201cRetribution\u201d and Scott Jennings’ \u201cA Revolution of Common Sense,\u201d few fall titles center on him and few so far are in the pipeline for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cReaders are looking more for books on the economy and geopolitical landscape than they are on anything more current in politics,\u201d says Barnes & Noble’s director of books, Shannon DeVito, citing Andrew Ross Sorkin’s \u201c1929,\u201d about the stock market crash; and Joyce Vance’s \u201cGiving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some prior administrations will be heard from. Former Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> has completed \u201c107 Days,\u201d about her hurried 2024 campaign. \u201cIndependent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines\u201d is a memoir from a White House press secretary under President Joe Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre<\/a>, who has since announced her departure from the Democratic Party. Former first lady Michelle Obama’s latest<\/a> looks back on her life \u2014 or at least what she has worn \u2014 in the illustrated fashion memoir \u201cThe Look.\u201d<\/p>\n

A handful of books anticipate next year’s 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. \u201cThe American Revolution: An Intimate History,\u201d by Ken Burns<\/a> and Geoffrey Ward, is a companion to Burns’ upcoming documentary. Walter Isaacson’s \u201cThe Greatest Sentence Ever Written\u201d looks in depth at the Declaration of Independence.<\/a> Donald Sassoon’s \u201cRevolutions: A New History\u201d documents the worldwide impact of America’s break from Britain. Joseph Ellis’ \u201cThe Great Contradiction\u201d probes the flaws and virtues of Thomas Jefferson and other founders.<\/p>\n

Other works will reflect on the war in Gaza, which nears its second anniversary, with releases ranging from former Hamas captive Eli Sharabi’s \u201cHostage\u201d to diary excerpts from Palestinian Plestia Alaqad, \u201cThe Eyes of Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poetry old and new<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New Book\u201d compiles final words from poet Nikki Giovanni,<\/a> who died last year. Ada Lim\u00f3n’s<\/a> \u201cStartlement\u201d is her first collection since her term as U.S. poet laureate ended last spring, while former laureate Billy Collins is releasing \u201cDog Show,\u201d which features watercolor drawings by Pamela Sztybel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Poems of Seamus Heaney\u201d collects all of the work by the late Nobel laureate and \u201cOnly Sing\u201d features more than 100 unpublished works by the late John Berryman. Harryette Mullen, Anne Waldman, Leila Chatti, Roque Raquel Salas Rivera and Chet\u2019la Sebree are among the contemporary poets with books out this fall.<\/p>\n

Visions of the future<\/p>\n

You could fill a shelf, or an e-reader, this fall just with notable books on climate change, from Neil Shea’s \u201cFrostlines\u201d to Elizabeth Kolbert’s \u201cLife on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World.\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Long Heat: Climate Politics When It\u2019s Too Late,\u201d authors Andreas Malm and Wim Carton examine our failure so far to prevent rising temperatures and what, if anything, is possible now, while warning of a \u201crough ride over the coming decades.\u201d Environmentalist Bill McKibben, a self-described \u201chard realist\u201d who has been writing about climate change for decades, has completed \u201cHere Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization,\u201d in which he challenges both climate deniers and those who say catastrophe is inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not going to stop global warming, that’s no longer on the menu, but we can still talk about whether we can stop it from cutting off civilization,\u201d McKibben told The Associated Press, citing the dramatic reduction in costs for solar power and other forms of energy he believes no longer should be called \u201calternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are used to thinking of solar and wind as the Whole Foods of energy \u2014 nice, but pricey. Now it’s the Costco of energy \u2014 it’s available in bulk and on the shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 In the decade since she published her acclaimed debut novel, \u201cThe Turner House,\u201d Angela…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[67975,67970,67968,47817,223,23703,88,67977,67971,67982,67973,67969,67974,67981,67980,67979,67978,67976,62793,67972,3123],"class_list":["post-101923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-andrew-child","tag-andy-catlett","tag-angela-flournoy","tag-arundhati-roy","tag-books","tag-cheryl-hines","tag-entertainment","tag-george-packer","tag-harper-lee","tag-ken-burns","tag-ken-follett","tag-kiran-desai","tag-patricia-lockwood","tag-robert-langdon","tag-slough-house","tag-the-turner-house","tag-thomas-jefferson","tag-thomas-mcguane","tag-thomas-pynchon","tag-wendell-berry","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}