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Health & Fitness

My Top Literary Fiction Picks for Fall

West Orange librarian Catherine LaBelle's five most anticipated fall books for adults.

Fall is the time to put aside those lighter beach reads and sink your teeth into a serious book!  Many publishers release their more weighty literary offerings as the weather turns colder.  The five literary fiction releases, all available in September, that I am most looking forward to this fall are:

1)      Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is one of my all-time favorite books and the buzz on this one makes it sound comparable.  Set on the geographical and ideological border between Berkeley and Oakland, it is the story of two old school record shop owners who fear obsolescence when a famous former NFL quarterback plans to open a megastore near them. 

2)      Fobbit by David Abrams - This debut novel from former military journalist Abrams is being touted as a Catch 22 for post 9/11 times.  It is the darkly funny tale of Fobbits, or soldiers who remain inside the Forward Operating Base in 2005 Iraq at all times to avoid combat.  Early reviewers call this satire “an instant classic.”

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3)      NW by Zadie Smith - The award winning author of White Teeth’s new novel tells the story of four siblings who move out and up from a housing estate in Northwest London, only to find themselves confronted by their pasts when a stranger knocks on one sister’s door.  

4)      In Vengeance by Benjamin Black, pen name of literary prize winning author John Banville, medical examiner Quirke becomes involves in another case, the suicide of a prominent businessman while out on a yachting trip with a business partner in 1950s Dublin.  As usual, the mystery is tightly plotted and the prose lush and lyrical.     

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5)      Not too many details are known about Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling’s first novel for adults, but expectations are high.  The plot revolves around the small English town of Pagford where the sudden death of a town personality leaves a vacant town council seat.  The fight for the seat becomes the biggest conflict the town has ever known and unleashes unforeseen consequences.

These are just a few of what’s coming out this fall.  Some other highly anticipated reads for autumn are This is How You Lose Her, a new story collection from Junot Diaz, Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Live by Night by Dennis Lehane, and Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe, all of which will be available by the end of October.

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