UPFRONT/READ
Fall’s Big Books
Pacino, Tucci, Erdrich and more
Tiny Slice
“[Food] may be the only significant aspect of my life that brings me peace … [a] beautiful, varied thing waiting to bring satiety and solace and offer hope while death and arithmetic haunt me.” —From What I Ate in One Year, by Stanley Tucci (October 15). See more fab foodies, below.
Tip Talk
Malcolm Gladwell revisits his 2000 bestseller about the mechanics of social epidemics and change, The Tipping Point, in Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering (October 1), offering a new set of theories and stories about “the strange pathways that ideas and behavior follow through our world.”
Notable
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich The Pulitzer Prize winner focuses this absorbing novel on a young woman, Kismet, and her mother, Crystal, who face scrutiny in their small North Dakota farming community after Crystal’s husband disappears with the local church’s funds. Their problems grow when newlywed Kismet realizes her own marriage was a big mistake. (October 1)
Sonny Boy by Al Pacino Fans will enjoy the actor’s nostalgic telling of his humble beginnings—he was raised by a single mom in the South Bronx—and stellar career. He recalls his early passion for the stage, which led him to bellow lines from Shakespeare into the New York night; his life-changing role as Michael Corleone in The Godfather ; his thoughts on aging; and more. (October 15)
Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway Novelist Harkaway, John le Carré’s son, revives his father’s iconic protagonist, spy George Smiley, with aplomb in this complex tale. It’s 1963, and Smiley takes on a case involving a Russian defector who was sent to London to murder a now-missing man, and ends up on the trail of a dangerous nemesis in East Berlin. (October 22) —Christina Ianzito
Nostalgia trips
New band biographies include Dreams: The Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac, by Mark Blake (Oct. 1), who interviewed Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, among others, for this deep dive, and The Name of This Band Is R.E.M., by Peter Ames Carlin (November 5), catnip for Gen Xers who came of age listening to these eccentric, groundbreaking musicians.
FAB FOODIES
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten (October 1)
I Love You: Recipes from the Heart by Pamela Anderson (October 15)
My Mexican Kitchen: 100 Recipes Rich with Tradition, Flavor, and Spice by Eva Longoria (October 29)
Willie and Annie Nelson’s Cannabis Cookbook (November 12)