It seems that everyone is coming out with their lists of most anticipated books for, at the very least, the beginning half of this year.
The Daily Beast suggests 21 not to miss books, including:
- The Pale King, David Foster Wallace's final, pieced-together, novel
- How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance, Parag Khanna
- Caribou Island, David Vann
- O: A Presidential Novel, Anonymous
- The Tiger’s Wife, Tea Obreht's debut novel
- The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, Jonathan Coe
- While Mortals Sleep, Kurt Vonnegut
- The Beggar's Garden, Michael Christie's debut short story collection
- Swamplandia!, Karen Russell's debut novel based on one of her short stories from her 2006 collection, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
- A Widow's Story, Joyce Carol Oates
- The War Rat of Wanchai, Ian Hamilton
- The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, James Frey
- The Troubled Man, Henning Mankel's first Wallander book in a decade
- The Girl in the Polka Dotted Dress, Beryl Bainbridge's final novel, finished just before she died last July
- Project X, Jeffrey Deaver's 21st century take on James Bond
- The Empty Family, Colm Tóibín
- Mr. Chartwell, Rebecca Hunt's debut novel
- The Free World, David Bezmozgis' debut novel
- 1Q84, Haruki Murakami - first released in 2009 in Japan as a 3 volume set & sold out of the printing in one day. This is the first English translation - the first 2 volumes are due out in September.
Almost all the lists include David Foster Wallace's Pale King and Tea Obrecht's Tiger's Wife. As the year progresses, we'll take a closer look at some of these releases. Already on the collectibles list is Rebecca Hunt's Mr. Chartwell. James Frey's Christian-bashing novel, due out in April, will undoubtedly prove to be as controversial as his Million Little Pieces. There are quite a few posthumous novels being released this year as we clamor for more of our lost writers. Whether or not these novels will hold up to literary standards is already being debated. As for collectibility, they are probably best acquired to round out collections - no doubt the print runs will be higher as we try to hold on to threads of these artists.
I'm most curious about Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 - a play on Orwell's 1984 - I'll be interested in reading Murakami's take. And also the Anonymous efforts of O: A Presidential Novel - said to be similar to the Clinton era True Colors in revealing the inner workings/motivations of the current president.
Labels: fiction, Hypermodern collectible, Most Anticipated books of 2011, nonfiction, One to Watch