With a new month brings tons of new releases in books, and there’s quite a few I’m looking forward to.
The Raven Boys
Maggie Stiefvater
Young Adult
408 pages
September 18, 2012
“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”
It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of theShiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.
I’ve had my signed copy of The Raven Boys pre-ordered for months now, and I’m so excited that it’s finally about to be here. I know how hard it is for us bookish people to pick a favorite author or book, but when you devour every book one author has to offer the second it comes out, time and time again, I think it is safe to say that you have found a favorite. So is my relationship with Maggie Stiefvater. Her Wolves of Mercy Falls series has stuck with me for years to date, and I loved The Scorpio Races so much, I wish I had written it. To say the least, I can’t wait for my copy of The Raven Boys.
A Wanted Man
Lee Child
Mystery/Thriller
416 pages
September 11, 2012
Four people in a car, hoping to make Chicago by morning. One man driving, eyes on the road. Another man next to him, telling stories that don’t add up. A woman in the back, silent and worried. And next to her, a huge man with a broken nose, hitching a ride east to Virginia.
An hour behind them, a man lies stabbed to death in an old pumping station. He was seen going in with two others, but he never came out. He has been executed, the knife work professional, the killers vanished. Within minutes, the police are notified. Within hours, the FBI descends, laying claim to the victim without ever saying who he was or why he was there.
All Reacher wanted was a ride to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy that makes him a threat—to both sides at once.
In Lee Child’s white-hot thriller, nothing is what it seems, and nobody is telling the truth. As the tension rises, the twists come fast and furious, keeping readers guessing and gasping until the explosive finale.
A Wanted Man, Lee Child’s seventeenth Reacher thriller, is a highly anticipated novel by fans everywhere. Lee Child is no newbie to the literary world, and I expect his latest thriller will be as well received as his acclaimed debut, Killing Floor.
The Casual Vacancy
JK Rowling
Fiction
480 pages
September 27, 2012
When Barry Fairweather dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.
If you’ve never heard the name JK Rowling, you have probably never read a book, watched a movie, or a commercial. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series is an internationally acclaimed culture as popular (or more so, as some would say) as Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. When fans heard JK Rowling was writing an adult novel, they were floored. The Casual Vacancy, I’m sure, will be a worldwide phenomenon come September 27th.
These are just a couple of the books we have to look forward to in September. I have no doubt that there are others you are planning to rush out and buy the second they are available. So, what will you be reading in September?
Mark Brassington 