The OF Blog: Books in my Amazon pre-order cart

Monday, November 15, 2010

Books in my Amazon pre-order cart

I don't often pre-order books, especially for those months down the road, but here are some books that I have on pre-order for December 2010-Spring 2011 that I think might be some of my more highly anticipated reads in the coming months:

Karen Russell, Swamplandia! (February 1, 2011) - I became a fan of Russell's short fiction this past spring when I was doing readings for BAF 4 and I was delighted just now to learn that her debut novel is coming out in February!  Her stories are very difficult to classify (other than I think she has written some damn fine bizarre stories) and the synopsis sounds as though her novel will be in much the same vein.  Tempted to break my resolution not to ask directly anymore for ARCs, as I think this one would be just the sort of read for me now.

Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife (March 8, 2011) - Obreht has been featured in both Atlantic and The New Yorker's special issues on important new voices over the past year.  This is another debut novel, one that promises to mix sadness and hope in a powerful way.  The little short fiction of hers that I've read has strengthened my hope that this will be a gripping read.

Bradford Morrow, The Diviner's Tale (January 20, 2011) - Morrow edits Conjunctions, one of my favorite fiction journals, so I'm curious to see how this new novel of his will be like, since I really haven't read any of his fiction before.  Premise sounds intriguing, to say the least.

Richard Parks, On the Banks of the River of Heaven (December 7, 2010) - Parks has written several spec fic short stories that I've enjoyed, so it was a no-brainer that I would pre-order his upcoming collection of 14 stories.

Michael Moorcock, Elric:  Swords and Roses (December 28, 2010) - Sixth collection of Elric stories.  I own the previous five and have (mostly) enjoyed them all.  Of course I'm going to continue the collection.


Not a huge amount of pre-orders, but I believe most of these are flying under the radars of those who might be most drawn to reading them.  Hopefully, my few words on why each interests me, combined with the product descriptions, will lead some at least to consider purchasing one or more books on this list.

And since I'm always curious, which ones appeal to you the most and why?

5 comments:

Liviu said...

the link for Tiger's wife seems to be broken; that one and The Diviner's tale are the two books of interest here for me and I out them on the wish list at Amazon so i keep track of them

Unknown said...

Got a copy of The Diviner's Tale in the mail last week, and though I haven't cracked the covers just yet - the time can't come soon enough - I'll say this: red gilded pages and that gorgeous golden green cover make for one of the most beautiful books I've seen in a long time.

Will report back.

Really liking the sound of Swamplandia! too - always appreciate a good book recommendation. Thank ums, Larry.

Graeme Flory said...

Has to be the Moorcock, for much the same reasons as you. 'Elric' novels can be found in second hand bookshops the world over but there's something about these editions that cry out to be collected :o)

Hélène said...

The Tiger's wife for me. I read some Elric's novels so long ago, I'd have to re-read them before buying a new one. I don't know how I would appreciate them nowadays.

Hélène said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
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