Here I am again, a new month and a new pile of books. After a productive October, I hope to keep up the momentum this month. Here then is my November 2024 Book Preview!
The Book Club Pick
Early book club in November (because we didn’t meet in October) and the pick is The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods. I’m not entirely sure I’m going to love this book, but it is at least about books, so I should be able to glean some enjoyment from it, no matter what the story. The book promises a mystery, with a disappearing bookshop and three characters drawn into its peculiar orbit. It looks perhaps a little pot-boilery but with a little magic sprinkled in. As the November nights draw in here in the UK, hopefully, it will add a little warmth.
Last Month’s Choice
The book I failed to read last month was The Future by Naomi Alderman. I’m looking forward to reading it this month, so once The Lost Bookshop has been knocked on the head, that’s where I’ll be going next. It’s a tale of social media skulduggery, the vagaries of tech billionaires, and the end of humanity.
The Children’s Read
I only have one book sent to me to review this month, Maisie Vs Antarctica by Jack Jackman. Publisher Nosy Crow has delivered a host of enjoyable middle-grade capers and I hope this will be no exception. Maisie has to accompany her dad to Antarctica, while he writes his latest book “How to Survive in Antarctica.” Despite being an author of books with exciting titles, Maisie finds her dad very boring. All this is about to change. A voyage of self-discovery is promised, as Maisie looks into why it is strange things happen around her father.
The Waterstone’s SFF Choice
The quest to read all of the Waterstone’s SFF book of the month choices continues with Alix E Harrow’s Starling House. I had a chance to read an early review copy of this but I passed as the gothic retelling vibe didn’t feel like my thing. The book is billed as a Beauty and the Beast retelling. Since its release, I’ve seen that Starling House garnered much critical and popular acclaim, so I’m glad to be given a second bite of the cherry.
The One That’s Been on the Pile for Ages
Before I reviewed for GeekDad I read and loved Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad. When, two or three years ago, I heard she was returning with The Candy House, I was thrilled. I picked up a copy as soon as the paperback was released and it has sat on my to-be-read pile ever since. (I have a few (well, many) books like this.) Hopefully, this will be the month I read it.
The book has echoes of The Future (mentioned above), featuring tech billionaires and radical life-changing software. I love this type of book, and the blurb promises linked narratives built around the novel’s central device. An “Own You Unconcious,” technology that enables you to download and access every memory you’ve ever had. I’m keen to get this one read as it dovetails nicely with another book that has sat on my TBR pile for too long, Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov.
The Slender Dystopia
Regular readers will know I’ve been in a bit of a dystopian mood of late. I have slipped the very slender They by Kay Dick. A thin volume, written nearly 50 years ago, They portrays an alternative Britain in which art and artists of all kinds are persecuted, rounded up, and their work destroyed.
The Impulse Purchase
Fellow bibliophiles will know that impulse-buy feeling. I stumbled on a threads post, or maybe it was Blue Sky, asking people for their favorite SFF novels. One person I follow and whose opinion I trust mentioned Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins. I did a bit of digging, and the premise sounded fascinating.
An alternate world, immersed in Soviet mythology; a fantasy-noir. Inspector Vissarion Lom has been summoned to the capital in order to catch a terrorist. He must report only to the head of the secret police. The novel promises mixed loyalties, rogue political elements, and elemental stone Angels. What’s not to love?
The Hi-Octane Thriller
Another book that has been sitting on my pile is Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka. I bought this for my wife when it first came out in the UK, because she likes locked-room mysteries, trains, and Japanese fiction. I meant to read it after her, but, as we’ve established, I buy too many books. I also really want to watch the movie – but not before I read the book. Hopefully, I can squeeze this into my November reading and then find time to watch the movie over the holiday season. It looks to be an absolutely preposterous thriller, and probably a palette cleanser after the brooding noir of Wolfhound Century.
And Finally
If that wasn’t enough, after returning home from my autumn break, two more books were sat on the doorstep. They weren’t originally on my November pile, but they’re new books sent to me by the publisher Walker Books. Rebel Dawn by Ann Sie Lin is the concluding part of the Rebel Skies trilogy. I enjoyed the first two books, so I look forward to the series’ conclusion.
Marisha Pessl is an author I have admired for a long time. Her books often deal with media consumption and contain mixed-media entries in the text. Darkly focuses on a dark, mysterious (and eponymous) games company with a cult following. Six teenagers are chosen for an internship that will plunge them into the “enigmatic heart of Darkly.” We’re promised hidden symbols, buried clues, and a web of intrigue. Darkly sounds like another perfect read for a dark Autumn night.
Another ambitious month then for my reading. I’d better get cracking. Join me at the beginning of December to discover how abjectly I failed!
Bookshop.org links in this piece are affiliate links. Where stated I received a copy of the book for review.
